Time Warp
by Tallulah Grammar Songstress
Summary: Complete! Gum's been thrown forward into a strange and horrible new future... and if she can't get back, the GGs may be doomed.
1. Disappearance

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Time Warp

By Tallulah

(A/N: Hello, all! Right. Okay. I do not own the GGs. Unfortunately. The basic storyline for this fic may seem a little clichéd, but please don't write it off completely. I'm only a poor struggling author! Um…I have taken some liberties with various GGs' ages. I'm sorry if you don't like it. Also, just a quick note to say this is NOT a JGRF fic. It has nothing to do with JGRF. I have never played JGRF. This is a JSR/JGR fic, and that's the way it's going to stay.

Now I've finished my babbling, so please r+r!)

Chapter One – Disappearance

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Benten-cho, Tokyo-to, Japan. 24th September, 2000.

"Beat, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Gum squinted at Beat's face in the darkness as the other GGs clustered around the Benten street corner.

"I'm telling you, I know what I'm doing."

"What are you doing?" Cube asked. "I'm baffled. First thing I know, I'm being press-ganged on this little expedition with absolutely zilch explanation."

"It's perfectly simple," Gum said. "Beat gets a message from some rudie chick who says she knows where the Noise Tanks' hidden base is, and would we be interested?"

"So what are we doing out here?" Cube asked.

"Meeting her. If we could tag up the Noise Tanks, we could reclaim Benten-cho, and that'd be sweet."

"You're telling me." Cube glowered. "You'd think with us saving the whole damn city from a Rokkaku demon, they'd cut us some slack, right?"

"Oh, yeah, and when have you ever cut anyone any slack?" Gum said, grinning. 

"Okay, okay. So I –"

"Ssh!" Beat hissed. "Someone's coming."

Gum stared as a figure stepped out of the shadows into the neon glare of the lights above them. It was a girl, wearing a long black hooded jacket, and knee-length black skates.

"Hey," she said. "You're the GGs, right?"

"Right," Beat said. "So, you got a tip-off for us?"

"I got something for you all right." She spoke a little louder.

Gum heard the click of skates on concrete behind her. "Huh?"

"Hey, GGs," another female voice called.

Gum turned, and her heart gave a nervous jump.

They were surrounded by Love Shockers and Noise Tanks.

"Guys…" she said.

"Oh, nuts…this is a set-up, isn't it?" Tab said. 

The girl smirked, and pulled off her jacket, to reveal pink spiked hair and Love Shocker uniform. "Yup. I guess when I said I'd side with you against the Noise Tanks, I must have got it the wrong way round. Oops."

Each of the enemy rudies held up a paint can. Gum swallowed. She could feel her heartbeat speeding up, the blood pounding under her skin. This would be a tough battle. There were four Love Shockers and four Noise Tanks, but the GGs were cornered. 

"Oh, well." Beat sounded unconcerned, but Gum could see his free hand curled into a fist. "Guess we'll have to tag your asses out here instead of at your HQs. Shame."

"You're the only ones who're gonna be getting tagged tonight." The Love Shocker shook her paint can. "Let's give the GGs a new look!"

Gum groaned. Her joints ached. Her head ached. Hell, she ached. And she was cold too. The paint was starting to dry on her skin.

"Well, I don't think that went as well as could have been expected," said a bedraggled figure draped over a railing.

"Beat, we look like a plate of strawberries and cream." Gum stood up, unsteadily, and felt the paint start to drip off the hem of her skirt.

"Nice observation, Gumster," Tab muttered. "Have to say, they didn't all have to keep aiming for my hat. I think I'm going blind."

"Did they tag us ten times?" Garam said. "Cos if they did, I'm gonna go on a murderous rampage…with a chainsaw…"

"Nope, we're still rudies," Cube called. "But when I find out who tagged 'Pop Princess' on my back, I'm gonna rip their lungs out and then dance to Miller Ball Breakers on their bleeding corpse. Everyone okay with that?"

"Suits me," Mew snarled. "I hate – and I mean this – I hate people who put paint in my hair. If I catch those dweebs, I'm gonna take my makeup kit and stick it where the sun don't shine."

"How big's your makeup kit?" Cube asked.

"Big enough."

Cube gave her a ragged thumbs-up.

"You sure you didn't know it was a Love Shocker?" Slate said. He'd been covered in so much paint that he looked like a melting strawberry ice cream.

"Nope." Beat hauled himself to his feet and skated towards the rest of the gang, leaving a trail of pink paint behind him. "I'm really, really sorry, guys –"

"Yeah, well, that's nice, but I was fond of this outfit," Piranha snapped. "Geez, Beat, you could have sussed it out."

"Well, I didn't," Beat said. "What else can I say?"

"You could try growing a brain," Garam growled. "This is so damn humiliating, and it'll be blasting out on the airwaves by tomorrow, and we'll be laughing-stocks."

"It'll blow over," Beat said. "People forget."

"Come on, guys," Combo said. He had paint all the way up to his chest, but no higher as none of the rudies had been able to reach. "Let's just get home, have a wash, and chill. Things'll look better in the morning."

"Certainly less pink." Cube scowled. 

"Aah, come on, you look gorgeous in pink," Yo-Yo said, rubbing paint off his glasses.

"Say that again and I'll maim you."

"Is that a threat, _Pop Princess?"_

"You seriously want to die, don't you?" Cube snarled.

"Cube. Cube-chan, calm." Garam quickly stroked his girlfriend's shoulders. "Come on. Let's get home, like Combo said."

The GGs skated slowly along the street. Gum tried to ignore the puzzled stares the paint-covered rudies were getting from the general public. 

"This is sooo humiliating…" Mew muttered.

Gum had to agree. Her clothes were clammy against her skin, and she knew without looking that she, like everyone else, was leaving a paint trail.

Suddenly her wristwatch radio crackled into life. "This is Onishima! Those punks have been defacing public property! And each other! Send in the parachute squad, and fill those pests with lead!"

"Oh, the perfect end to the perfect night," Cube snarled.

"Come on, guys, let's just get moving," Beat said. "Over the bridge, quick."

Gum glanced up, and swallowed as the parachutes fell towards them. She started to dash. One bullet in the leg and she'd be done for.

The paratroopers landed, and she heard the rattle of machine guns.

"Run!" Tab yelled from up ahead.

They dashed onto the bridge, over the railway, and into the walkway area. Behind them Gum could hear the clatter of paratrooper footsteps. Bullets began to ping onto the ground around their feet.

"I do not need this…" Mew said. "I so do not need this…"

"Try and throw them off," Beat called. "Don't lead them back to the garage!"

The GGs separated, some heading on down the street, some dashing up the banisters of the walkways. Gum, Beat and Tab took the latter option. Gum's legs were starting to ache. 

"We should be…safe now," Tab gasped as they got to the highest walkway. "No way they'll come up here…"

Another bullet ricocheted off the ground at his feet.

"Huh?"

Gum saw the splashes of pink paint dotted along the ground. "We left a trail, you idiot! Quick, let's move it!"

They ground down the flight of steps on the other side of the walkway, and ran through the tunnel into Benten-cho's residential district. The lanterns above them glowed on their paint-covered skin and clothes as they ground up a ventilation shaft, and onto the nearest roof.

"They can't get us up here, can they?" Tab said.

There was a clatter as a tile was shot off the roof.

"Will you keep your mouth shut already?" Gum said as they started dashing again. Beat jumped onto a phone wire and the other two followed him. Gum glanced down at the street as it sped below them and saw several paratroopers running to try and catch up. 

"I don't think we're going to be able to do this for long," she said. "Any ideas, Beat?"

"Just follow me!"

He jumped off the wire, onto the roof across the street. Gum and Tab copied him, and landed on the tiled surface. Gum heard a few more tiles shatter on the street below.

They'd reached the gates to the railway now. Beat hurried through them, and as the others followed, pulled them shut.

"Now don't move," he whispered.

The three rudies flattened themselves against the wall, and waited.

Footsteps getting nearer. A pause. "I don't think they're here…reckon they went through the gate?"

Gum swallowed as her throat went dry. She tensed to run…

"Nah, it's shut…look, there's paint going across this way. Maybe they went down that alley."

"I guess. Let's check it out."

The voices, and the footsteps, faded away.

Gum breathed a delicious sigh of relief. 

"Let's go," Beat hissed.

The rudies started to hurry down the tracks back towards Shibuya-cho.

When they finally got back to the garage, it was late. The paint was starting to dry on Gum's skin, and it itched.

"If it was any colour but pink…" she muttered to Tab.

"Yeah, I know. But keep it down, I think Beat's feeling bad enough without us getting at him."

Beat pushed open the garage door, and they crept inside. 

Gum was relieved to see that the other seven GGs were all there. At least they didn't have to add a jailbreak to tonight's events.

"Hey, guys," she called.

"Hey, Gum, hey, Tab." Cube gave Beat a pointed glance and then turned her back on him.

"Oh, come on," Tab said. "Cut him some slack."

"I'm really sorry," Beat said. He took off his goggles, and started to rub the paint off the lenses.

"Sorry's nice, but it wouldn't have got us out of jail," Slate said.

"Well, what do you want me to say?"

"Look, just be more careful next time, okay?" Mew said. Her clothes were covered in dirt and dust as well as paint. "Piranha and I had to hide in the darkest, dirtiest corner of the siding for, like, hours."

"It was a mistake," Beat snapped. "I thought she was on the level, how was I supposed to know she wasn't? Look, we're all still rudies, no one's caught, no one's injured –"

"No thanks to you!" Cube interrupted.

"Just get off my case!"

"Why the hell should I? So what if everyone's okay? We _could_ have been derudiefied, we _could _have been arrested, we _could _have been shot. You're the leader and you're supposed to stop that happening!"

"Well, it didn't happen!"

"No thanks to you!"

"Well, if that's how you feel, maybe someone else should have a go at being leader for a bit!" Beat yelled. "You try and solve all our problems if you think you're so great!"

"I'm not saying –"

"I don't care what you're saying. I'm out of here."

"But you're still all covered in paint," Gum said.

"Hey, it's my own fault. Right, Cube-chan?"

Beat stormed out of the garage, slamming the door behind him.

There was a nervous silence. Cube shuffled her feet.

"You gonna go after him?" Gum said.

"I was right," Cube said. "Look, it's better this way. He can cool off and then we can make up when he gets back in."

"Who's in the shower at the moment?" Gum asked.

"Piranha."

"Bags I next."

She went over to sit next to Tab, who had slumped down against the wall.

"Maybe I should go after him," he said. "It's not safe out there."

"With you all painted up as well? No way. I'll go when I've showered. And don't worry about Beat. He's a good skater, he'll be fine."

"I sure hope you're right."

Gum skated along, relishing the air on her clean skin. She still smelt of paint, but at least she didn't look like she'd been in an artists' battle.

She glanced at the pavement again, looking for more splatters of pink. Lucky for her Beat had gone out without cleaning himself up. It made him that much easier to find.

The trail led through the bus terminal, past the square and up into Center Street. Gum followed it, moving slowly, ignoring the occasional vehicle rushing past her. Jet Set Radio whispered in her ears, giving her confidence. It was a warm night, and she let herself enjoy the act of skating without worrying, just for a few moments.

Only for a few. Soon her thoughts had returned to Beat. Poor guy. He hadn't meant to set them up like that. But he was so damn naïve…always had been. Just didn't have the knack of thinking that people were all bastards underneath. 

The muscles of her legs began to throb as the hill grew steeper. She stopped to rest, leaning against a closed video rental shop. The darkness inside it depressed her, and she quickly tagged the window before moving on.

Nearly at the top now. The paint trail wasn't so strong, fading out completely in places. Must be drying, she thought. So I better find him soon. 

She got to the top of the hill, stood, looked around. Nothing.

"Beat, stop being a pest," she muttered under her breath. Her head was starting to ache with annoyance.

No more paint. Either he'd dried out completely, or he'd turned round and gone home again. 

"Beat?" she called. "Beat, you out here?"

Her voice rang back at her, echoing through the empty streets. Was anyone out here tonight?

"Fine," she said, so that he'd hear if he were lurking somewhere. "If that's the way you want it, I'm heading home."

Her head was pounding now, like someone was kicking it. She closed her eyes, which only slightly weakened the pain. 

"That's all I need," she said. Reaching up, she unclipped her helmet and took it off. Cool air stroked her scalp, soothing the agony.

She began to skate back down the hill, faster and faster. The darkened shops and houses ran away from her as she dashed, more and more quickly until they blurred into one continuous line of grey. 

And then she slipped. 

The world spun, went crazy, she cried out, saw the edge of a railing rushing towards her.

THUNK

And the grey faded to black.

There was a roaring in her ears, a roaring that grew louder and louder and louder and then – zip – faded and was gone. 

She was warm. So was the ground.

Pain jumped and kickboxed on her forehead. 

She opened her eyes, and sunlight punched them. Quickly she slammed them shut again, and sat up a little. She could hear music playing, faintly, in her ears…_Will you stop playing with that radio of yours…_of course, Jet Set Radio. Professor K. 

She opened her eyes again, shading them with one hand. The light still hurt her, but not so much. 

"Man…I must have been out all night…" She glanced at her watch. 21:30, it read.

"Great, it's stopped." But no – she could see the seconds ticking over, frantically transforming into minutes, minutes to hours…

"Okay, so it's slow. Fat lot of good you are at the moment," she said to it, and got to her feet.

Her helmet lay some distance away from her. She jammed it back onto her head, and then, braving the light, checked out her surroundings.

Center Street lay stretched out below her like a picture, the sun casting golden light over the shop fronts and houses, chasing the shadows away. Gum breathed in the morning air, and grinned.

Suddenly she remembered Beat. He must have gone home. She hoped he'd gone home. If he hadn't gone home…well, she'd worry about that later.

She touched her forehead, and winced as her fingers stabbed the puffy bruise on it.

"I'll find me an ice pack," she promised herself, and began to skate down the hill. 

The paint trail had disappeared. I wonder if paint evaporates? Gum thought. Or maybe a street cleaner dealt with it. 

There was the video shop…

She stopped. Surely she'd tagged that last night?

Puzzled, she walked closer. Instead of her tag, the window now featured a bunch of 'Premises To Let' posters. 

Wow, that was quick, Gum thought. I guess shops go out of business fast. 

She touched the window, which was warm from the heat of the sun. But where was her tag?

They washed it off, she answered herself. Obviously. 

At last she got to the bottom of the hill, walked past the cinema. _Pokémon Movie: The Tenth, _the billboard next to it read.

"What happened to Pokémon movies four to eight?" Gum wondered. "Still, it's not like I'm interested in them. Let's see…Pokémon, The Blair Witch Project Five…Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire? Where'd all these come from? I have got to start reading more movie magazines."

She turned to go, and then a tag caught her eye, a tag painted on the glass front of the cinema door.

A Love Shocker tag.

"Great! First they paint us, then they paint our turf…" Gum whipped out her spray paint and covered the tag over. "Geez."

'Let Mom Sleep' rattled to a halt, and Professor K yelled, "Gangs come and go, but Jet Set Radio is forever! It's been a quiet couple of days, folks…"

Gum groaned and waited for the GGs' humiliation to echo into her ears. 

"The Noise Tanks did a little decorating job in Benten, and the Love Shockers were chillin' out in Shibuya! Seems like we need some more rudies on the streets, guys…come on, enlist your friends and blackmail your enemies! Keep the vibes flowing!"

"What?" Gum stopped in the middle of the pavement as the word was torn from her lips. "That's it? Well, thanks, K, but if you're so desperate for news…"

She stopped as she realised she was walking along shouting at nobody. Okay. Calm down. Get back to the garage.

She walked past the square into the bus terminal, and her jaw dropped. 

There wasn't a GG tag in sight.

Love Shocker tags spattered the buses and cars, smirked at her from the billboards. Gum blinked – she'd tagged that billboard yesterday, one of her best Minty Cool Flavours, how dare those bitches cover it up?

Angrily she leapt and jumped until she was standing in front of the billboard herself. _Now _to show those brats who the masters of Shibuya were…

Wait.

The Love Shocker tag was unfamiliar. A large broken heart with lightning radiating out around it. A different shape from the one she'd put on there yesterday. She should be able to see the remains of her tag, peering out from behind the Love Shocker one.

But she couldn't. Behind the pink lightning bolts there was nothing but advert.

Gum shivered. Okay, so they replaced the billboard. 

But this tag was old, faded. It looked as though it had been there several days, if not weeks. 

But it hadn't been there yesterday. She glanced around, checking she was looking at the right billboard.

No. Hang on. It was wrong. The advert she'd tagged was for deodorant. This one was for a car of some sort. She checked the other billboards. They'd changed as well.

But this was definitely the right one. The furthest one to the left. The one you ground up the lorry ramp to get on to. She knew it was. 

"I tagged this," Gum said, laying a hand on the dry, painted surface. "I tagged it fair and square. I know I did. _So what the hell is going on?"_

She could feel herself shivering. Tagging was her way of making the world take notice, of expressing who she really was. If – if something had happened, if she couldn't do it any more…

"Stop it," she said, speaking out loud to check she still could. "There's bound to be a reasonable explanation for this. Boy, will the others laugh when they find out what you thought."

She tried not to think of that stupid ghost story Mew had told a few nights ago, about the girl who died and never realised…

Hands shaking, she tagged the billboard. She was trembling so much she almost dropped the paint can, and she didn't even know why. There was just a trickle of ice running down her spine, a violin chord of unease ringing in her ears…_something is wrong, something is wrong, something is wrong…_

"Now I'm getting back," she said, still speaking aloud. "I am going to go and find the others. I will tell them this, and they will laugh. Then we will go out tagging. We will find Beat. We will find everyone. I am not abandoned here. And I am not scared."

She leapt off the billboard, and dashed down the road towards the garage.

It looked the same, anyway. 

Right?

Gum squinted at it. The sunlight was brighter now, dazzling her eyes as it shone through the trees.

The trees.

They were leafy, bursting with life, glowing green, however you liked to put it. Which was lovely. Except that she was prepared to swear on her life that the last time she'd seen them, they'd been starting to fade. Branches had become bare. Autumn leaves had tangled round the wheels of her skates. 

Panic rose in her throat.

She focused on the garage again, trying not to think.

There were a few more tags than there had been yesterday, but she'd be stupid to let that worry her.

Maybe she shouldn't go in. Maybe she should just stay outside and pretend all was normal.

Yeah, right.

Gum skated towards the door and wrenched it open. She was so desperate to see what she hoped – GGs hanging out in morning sunlight – that at first her mind refused to take in what was actually there.

Then, slowly, it sank in.

The garage was empty.

"Okay," Gum said. "So they all went out. So it's later than I thought. I don't need to panic. I really don't."

"Gum? Gum, is that you?"

A guy was calling from the other room. She didn't recognise the voice – at least, she was pretty sure she didn't – but she did recognise its tone. Relief, mingled with fear.

"Yes," she said, the same feelings ringing in her own voice now. She still existed. She hadn't been ghostified or whatever. "Yes, I'm here. Where's everyone else?"

She heard footsteps, and the guy walked into the room.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in our garage?" she yelled.

He was a little taller than her, with tangled auburn hair and shadowed, tired eyes. Stubble speckled his chin like bruises. He was wearing black trousers and skates, and a wrinkled army green T-shirt.

And she'd never seen him before in her life.

"Who are you?" she yelled again.

But he was staring at her, looking just as puzzled. "Why've you gone back to wearing that old stuff? And – and you cut your hair…"

Then he blushed.

"What are you talking about? I've always worn this stuff. And I've always had my hair this length." Gum glared at him. "And who are you? Where are the others?"

The guy sighed. "What others?"

"The other GGs, you moron!"

He came over to her, concern forcing its way through the tiredness in his face. "Gum, listen. There are no other GGs. You know that."

Gum's heart jumped on its rhythm like someone missing a stair. 

"Very funny," a voice that didn't sound like hers said. "Like I believe you."

"It's the truth! Oh, geez…" He ran a hand down his face, then took a deep breath. "Listen to me. The GGs are gone. We're the only two left. You can't go back, no matter how you dress or wear your hair. We're stuck with this life."

_"We're_ the only two?" She tried not to think about the main meaning of his speech, only about this slip. "You're not a GG."

"Oh, man…" He turned away, reached for a black hoodie lying on the sofa. The sofa was still the same, Gum told herself. Keep calm. Not everything has changed.

She didn't feel calm. She felt like screaming, breaking something, or worse, bursting into tears.

The guy dragged the hoodie on over his head, and pulled a pair of sunglasses out of the pocket. Slipping them on, he said, "I am a GG. Come on. Look, let's go out for some fresh air or something…"

Gum stared at him. At the yellow 33 on his chest. At the red and white sunglasses with the square frames perched on his nose. At the arrows on the front of his skates.

"How old are you…" she stammered.

"What?"

"How damn old are you?"

"I'm eighteen, doofus. Same age I've been all this year."

"No," Gum gasped. "You're thirteen…you're thirteen, I know you are…"

"I was when you dressed like that. I'm not now."

"You can't be eighteen. I'm not eighteen yet."

"You're twenty-two, Gum-chan," he said.

"Oh, my lord, I'm going crazy…" Gum pressed her fists over her eyes, praying she'd open them and everything would be all right. It had to be. It _had _to be.

"Gum, calm down, it's okay…"

She took her hands away, and stared at the empty garage, at the guy standing facing her. Stinging tears started to fill her eyes.

"What the hell's happened to me?"

"I thought you'd got caught by the cops. What did they do to you?"

"I didn't get caught. I went out to look for Beat, last night…"

"Beat hasn't been findable for the last five years." He was holding her, stroking her back. She was too terrified to complain about it.

"No. He left last night…stormed out in a temper after we picked on him for getting us ambushed by the Noise Tanks and Love Shockers…"

"That was five years ago."

"It can't be. You're lying." She broke away from him. "I don't know you. You're not a GG. It's September 2000, and – and –"

"You do know me. I'm Yo-Yo. I'm eighteen years old, and it's August, 2005."


	2. Various Points In Time, 2000-2005

Chapter Two – Various Points In Time, 2000-2005

(Okay. Thanks for r+ring, everyone! I don't think I own anything in this, and I hope it doesn't annoy anyone what I've pictured the GGs turning out like…oh, well…please r+r!)

Garam adjusted his black sunglasses, and squinted into the darkness. They should be along any moment. Good.

He leant against the wall, in the shadows, and gripped the shotgun tighter. Now all he had to do was wait. The first time he'd done this he'd been shaking all over, unable to keep still. Now he was a professional.

He made himself quiet, silent. Held the gun over the white skull shape on his T-shirt. Now he was nothing but a dark shadow you wouldn't even notice unless you were looking for it. Hopefully they wouldn't be. 

Focus on the quarry. The kill. Don't let your thoughts drift.

But it was no good. This was Benten-cho, the walkway area, and it was too familiar. 

Sometimes he wondered if he should have left the GGs. But come on. He and Cube had thought it was the best thing. At the time. Cube still did.

Garam wasn't always so sure.

Cube had changed all right. 

The purpose of doing this, Garam had always believed, was to wipe out their prey. Make it so there weren't any left. Which meant one quick shot through the back of the head, the end.

Cube didn't see it that way. She seemed to think the purpose of doing this was to make as many of their prey suffer as possible. Make it so they died in maximum agony. Which meant her doing stuff he didn't think about, because she was his girlfriend and he had to stand by her, because if he didn't he was no better than – stop it. Stop it.

Footsteps.

Garam straightened up, very slowly, and listened to the voices. 

Sounded right. But better make sure.

He took one hand off the gun and touched a button on his sunglasses. His vision suddenly glowed with inverse light as the night vision function was activated. Now he could see the guy's face. 

Yep. Right one.

Carefully he raised the gun. The sight lines wobbled like they were drunk. Garam steadied his hand, angry at himself. 

Lines on skin. 

Go for it.

His finger tightened on the trigger. He felt the build up of power in the weapon, rising, rising, and then – release. 

The guy fell. The woman walking with him began to scream.

Garam didn't move. Cube's voice rang in his thoughts. _Go on. Kill her, the bitch. Firstly, she'll blab, and second, you know what she is. Whore._

Nope, Cube-chan, Garam answered her silently. I ain't you.

He turned and walked back onto the bridge, keeping in the shadows. The cold air stroked his skin. 

I ain't you, but I ain't sure if I'm me either. 

He sprang from the bridge to the roof of a train. The landing knocked the breath out of him. This would have been a lot easier on skates – no, that's in the past, buddy.

He didn't dare feel much. Not fear, not anger, not much love, even. In case he started feeling guilt. He knew enough to realise that could swamp him. 

He slid off the train onto the rough ground, and walked towards the boxes piled up at the side of the rails. Behind them was a door. 

He knocked, and waited, collecting his thoughts, breathing slowly in the oil-soaked air. This was his life now. This was what he'd chosen. This was all he had.

And that was that.

Mew stared down at the test paper, and felt her stomach drop like it had been sucked out of her body. Forget working out the answers. She couldn't even figure out the damn _questions._

Tears stung her eyes and she bit down on the end of her pen to stop her mouth trembling. 

Okay, girl, she whispered to herself, be calm. Be calm. You can do this. You revised. Well, sort of. 

It's not my damn fault they kept playing that music in the next room…it's not my fault I keep having nightmares…it's not my fault I'm _stupid…_

Mew bit her pen again and blinked several times to bring the paper back into focus. That didn't help. It still remained incomprehensible.

She glanced up, and met the eye of her maths teacher. Quickly dropping her gaze back down to the paper, she started to decorate the edge of it. May as well look as if she was doing something. 

She didn't even care about school. She didn't want to be here, she'd been forced. But however bad it was, it had to be better than what they could have done to her…

Her hand trembled and the line she was drawing wobbled.

It was ten a.m. The GGs would be out tagging now. Tagging made her feel – feel like she was alive, or flying, or something corny like that. Just being able to do it, neatly and quickly and well, playing with colours, the smell of paint, leaving your mark so everyone knew you…

Her pen traced the outline of a Sweeter Than Sugar tag across the corner of the paper. It was dangerous, but she'd wanted to do this for so long…they didn't even let her draw or anything back at the foster home…She felt her muscles loosening, unknotting, spreading like the roots of a tree, growing down her arms and back, filling her with green gleaming energy.

She finished the Sweeter Than Sugar, and scrabbled for some coloured pencils.

Kabuki Jam…Theatre of Sound…she whispered the words in her mind, stroking the familiar shapes, then danced a swirl of green across the paper. Colour, yes, yes…she wished she had her paints, she could really go for it then. Turquoise. Emerald. Crimson. Violet. Paint the world. Paint this dumb classroom for a start, did they think it helped having nothing but grey and stale yellow in here? 

She shaded in blue over a spatter of fractions, and stretched her aching fingers. Yes, much better. She felt like she'd laughed herself stupid, like she'd just heard the best music in the world, like she'd leapt off a high place and landed safely.

"Stop writing now."

The test.

Oh, _shit._

Mew glanced down in horror at the paper, the paper blazing with colour, colour and nothing else. 

I'm doomed.

Quickly she flipped it over. The teacher held out her hand for it. Mew reluctantly surrendered. Maybe she'd get away with this. Maybe.

"Now please take out your books and work through Exercise 9A. I will mark the tests and give you your results at the end of the lesson."

Mew's hands were shaking so much she could hardly open the book, and when she finally found the relevant work, it made no sense, her brain wouldn't take it in. Standing the book upright, she glanced over it at the teacher, who was marking quickly, the pen making little scratches on each piece of paper.

Maybe she won't find it. Mew felt the tension creep away a little. Maybe she'll turn over two by accident. It was silly to worry about this. Maybe nothing was wrong. 

The teacher turned over a finished paper, and stopped. Mew's hands began to tremble again. She ducked her head to stare at the maths.

"Miyako, stand up."

Mew got nervously to her feet and tried to look innocent.

"What do you call this?"

The teacher held up the test paper. Mew heard people snickering, and closed her eyes.

"Don't just stand there pretending you haven't seen it. This is what rudies call answering a test paper?"

"I – I couldn't do the test," Mew whispered.

_Because you're stupid, stupid, stupid…_

"So you decided to scribble all over it instead?"

Mew didn't answer. 

"I knew there would be trouble, having rudies in the classroom. Now listen, Miyako. You have been sent to us on probation. The way you're going, you'll be looking at the inside of a cell by Christmas."

"I'll – I'll try harder," Mew said. She could feel tears welling up inside her again.

"Why did you do this?"

"I – I – I couldn't do the test and I just wanted to make it look like I was doing something, and I just wanted to…"

"Oh, for Heaven's sake." The teacher walked over to Mew. "Do you really think you can go through life only doing what you want?"

Mew stared at her feet. A miserable, blurred reflection looked back at her from her shiny patent shoes. 

"Miyako, will you look at me when I'm speaking to you?" 

Mew quickly glanced up. "Sorry…"

The teacher ripped the paper down the middle, and dropped it on Mew's desk. "There. You'll retest this in three days time."

"What if I fail that?"

"I'll be contacting the authorities."

"No!" Mew felt the scream tear from her and hit the outside world like a bullet. 

"I don't appreciate direct challenges like that." The teacher pointed to the torn tag on the paper.

"It wasn't a challenge," Mew snapped.

"Then I guess you're just stupid."

_You're stupid, stupid, stupid…_

"Shut up! Just leave me alone, can't you? It's not my damn fault I can't do anything except tag, just get off my case!"

She felt the tears rise, break, run down her skin. Through the burning haze covering her vision she saw people staring, whispering, laughing…

She pushed her chair back and ran out of the classroom. 

Outside in the corridor it was cooler, and thank god, it was empty. Mew ran down it, and finally reached the main hall. She stopped outside the door, trying to catch her breath, trying to stop sobbing.

Footsteps. She dashed away from them, into the hall, and dropped down behind the pile of crash mats in the corner.

What would the others say? she thought at last, breathing in the warm smell of sweat and rubber. They'd laugh at you. You're the best off of any of them probably. 

Yeah. Either off to jail, or if I do get through this, stuck in some second-rate job, no drawing, no tagging, and watched to check I'm not being subversive…

I hate this. I _hate _this. I want to go home…

Well, you can't, can you? You slipped up, and now it's one institution or another. 

And that's that.

Combo stood tagging over an electric advert in Grind Square. The tag was shaping up good, but it wasn't making him feel better.

Don't start, he told himself. Don't start going on 'bout what you could've had. You're here now. 

That was the problem. He was here now. The last member of Triple-C had come home to roost. 

And Cube was back in Tokyo-to, damn her, and she was being stupid. 

He finished the tag, but he couldn't bring himself to skate on. What was the point? Tag, skate, tag, skate. Maybe he'd been a rudie too long.

Don't keep fooling yourself, his thoughts muttered. You're stressed about Cube, admit it. 

Well, why shouldn't I be? If she got caught her ass'd fry and you know it. 

She won't get caught. She's careful.

Not when she's mad she ain't. 

Anyway, quit thinking about her. I bet she ain't thinking about you. 

The worry ate away at his heart like a – a coyote. Some sort of scavenging animal, anyway. 

If only he hadn't said what he'd said. Then they might have been able to remain friends, at least. He could have checked she was okay. He wouldn't have felt so down he'd hightailed it back to Grind City.

And now only Garam was looking out for her. Combo's eyes narrowed as he stared up at the lilac sky. Like that punk could look after anyone. He couldn't even look after himself, let alone Cube. Not that Cube would ever admit she needed looking after. 

And now anything could be happening and he didn't know shit.

Well, keep it that way, his mind said. Forget the GGs. Forget Tokyo-to. 

He could do that. He could do that just fine. 

He just couldn't forget Cube.

Not that he felt, like, _that _way about her. Yeah, right. 

Well, he didn't. 

He didn't!

And there was no point in thinking about it now. She'd made her choice. After what they'd said to each other she probably never wanted to see him again. They'd known each other for years and now she never wanted to see him again…

He'd wanted to tell her, once, that he, well, liked her. But then she'd started going with Coin. And Coin had been his best friend. And he wasn't gonna throw a spanner in the works of that relationship. So he'd stopped thinking about it. Thinking about her.

But then she'd started doing something really stupid, and he'd had to say _something, _because you didn't just let your friends – yeah, your friends, not anything else – you didn't just let your friends do things like that. 

And she'd freaked. And so had he. And now here he was, an ocean away from her. 

Loneliness was better. He stared round at the lights of the city. When Coin had disappeared, he'd carried on hoping right up to the end that he might come back. But no dice. So he'd mourned, and then he'd got over it, and he'd thanked his lucky stars he still had Cube, and now she was gone.

So distance yourself, dude. Forget it all. Grind City's not so bad. A lone rudie can survive. 

And that's that.

Piranha lay on the sofa and gently stroked her pregnant stomach. What week was it now? The thirty-second? Which meant about eight left to go. Eight weeks. Fifty-six days. Who knew how many hours. Eight weeks until she became a mother.

I can't be a mother, Piranha thought. I mean, I just can't be. She wanted to giggle hysterically at this dumb joke. Her, having a baby! Yeah, right! It was so funny it was…it was real. 

Her ankles were swollen too, and her breasts. You've just had the best years of your life, she told her body. From now on, it's downhill all the way. Back pains. Wrinkles. Lack of sleep. And absolutely, positively, no more skating. 

She'd ditched her skates by now. It was all too dangerous.

She stretched out her bare feet, wriggled her toes. At times she wanted to cry when she realised what she'd let herself in for. Or she was angry at how things had spun out. No more GGs. No more skating. No more tagging – except as a cheap decorating source, of course. But then at other times she felt ridiculously, stupidly happy that she was having this baby. 

It was probably just mood swings. Surely when the kid was born she wouldn't feel so crazy.

When it was born…she shivered, and all the films she'd seen with women in labour popped into her head. Screaming. Agony. Blood. Like a damn massacre. 

She wished the other GGs could be here. They'd snap her out of this.

But they weren't. She was alone. They'd been not too happy with her about this. Not furious, just…sort of well-you-should-have-stopped-it. She'd tried, hadn't she? She hadn't asked for this either. She hadn't asked to be banned from being a rudie for the rest of her life. She hadn't asked to be left alone…

Piranha blinked back tears. Don't be so stupid. You're not alone, he didn't dump you, did he? He could've done. She'd expected him to. But he hadn't. 

Piranha rested her head against the back of the sofa, and watched the golden dust hovering in the sunlight. 

Eight weeks to go. Would it be just her and him when she finally had this baby? Probably. Who else cared?

Most of them can't get here anyway, she thought. Not unless they get parole in honour of the occasion. 

And it's a stupid rose-tinted picture anyway, imagining them all turning up for you. Get a life, Piranha. You're grown-up now. Maybe you didn't want to be, but you are. And that's that. 

Cube stood in the moonlight streaming through the French windows, squares of it cutting her into segments.

There was a lot of blood.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Cube murmured. "I've always liked red. And it goes _so _well with your sky-blue carpet, Mrs Toriyama."

The huddled shapes on the floor didn't answer. Cube shrugged. Walking over to the shiny mahogany table, she took an apple from the fruit bowl, and bit into it. 

She knew how it should taste. She knew it should be a sweet, wholesome dampness. 

But she couldn't taste it. She could feel it in her mouth, but the enjoyment factor was zero. 

She glanced at her watch. Four minutes to midnight. She should get going. 

But she didn't think she could face the other two just yet. Especially not Garam. He'd ask her how it went.

She'd tell him.

He'd look at her.

And she'd be frightened, because it was the look of someone staring at a monster.

And she wasn't a monster.

Just because Combo had looked at her that way when they'd argued, no, not argued, fought, rowed, brawled – just because he'd stared at her like that didn't mean she was a monster.

Clouds passed across the moon, and the light covering her went out. In the darkness you couldn't see that anything was wrong. That was good. Because nothing was wrong. Nothing was wrong. Nothing.

The gun was warm in her other hand, sticky with sweat.

She swallowed her mouthful of apple. If she brought the gun up to her head and fired, she could be out of here in seconds.

The clouds were pulled back, and the moon blazed out again. 

There was a phone on the table. She could call the cops, sit down and wait till they came, let them take her away.

Or she could go back to the GGs. They'd be there for her, they would, they always would. They'd take her back. Then she could leave all this behind.

_After what you said? I don't think so._

Besides, you know they deserve it really.

"I wonder if it was you who caught him?" she said out loud to one of the slumped shapes. "I wonder if it was you who broke his face with your little stick. I wonder what you did to him once you had him back at the station. No one cares about rudies, do they. No one but the rudies themselves."

She finished the apple, shoved the core into her pocket. No need to give them any more evidence. 

"So you see," she said, walking towards the French windows, "I can't stop. Sometimes you just have to fight."

She opened the windows. The night air tiptoed in, ruffled the curtains, flicked over the pages of a book on the table, skimmed the pools of blood. 

Cube turned back to look at her handiwork.

"I've got mad skills," she whispered.

Then she leapt out onto the patio, and was gone.

And that was that.

Slate paced the grey carpet of the hospital waiting room. There was a clock ticking and it was making him nervous.

She'd been in there three hours now. How long did it take to have a baby, anyway? 

There were two other guys in here, he assumed waiting for their girls, or wives, to give birth. Nobody was speaking.

They were both, like, adults. Grown-up. One was in his forties, Slate guessed, the other late twenties. He felt like a kid next to them.

A kid who was about to be a father.

He'd always told himself that if and when he became a father he'd do it right. Not like his parents had. But now he wasn't so confident. Okay, he wasn't confident at all.

What if the child had his face? Looked like a freak? He'd love it all the same, and he guessed Piranha would too. She'd gone with him, hadn't she? 

But no one else would. Ever.

It would be much better for it to not have his looks. Not to have any of him.

_Some father you'd be…if it even gets your face it'll be screwed up for good._

But I won't make it ever feel bad about that, Slate promised himself. Ever. That's something I can do better than my own stupid family.

He couldn't seem to sit still, unlike the other two guys. He had to keep walking. He'd read all the posters in this room several times. At least he knew the symptoms of meningitis and what to do if you found someone unconscious.

Not that it was doing much for his peace of mind, all this warning of doom. 

Was Piranha okay? Was this normal or was she meant to have been out by now? Maybe there was something wrong. Maybe she was gonna die, maybe the kid was gonna die…

Maybe he should stop thinking for a bit.

But I can't do this, his thoughts complained. I'm not smart enough, or old enough, or anything…

_You think she's having an easy time of it?_

She'd got really scared about actually giving birth. He wished he'd offered to go be with her. It couldn't be more stressful than being down here. 

Here felt pretty lonely. He wondered what it'd have been like if they hadn't quit the GGs. If they'd stayed and she'd had her kid in the garage. Well, hopefully not literally in the garage, but…

If they'd stayed. The others would probably have made fun of them, but it mightn't have been that bad. It mightn't have been bad at all. And he'd have some company now, someone to stop him starting to think about what might happen.

It would have been bad, though, if Piranha had been out skating…and fallen or something…and had the baby too early…or if she'd been arrested…if Onishima or the paratroopers had shot her…if, if if…they'd _had _to leave…

He wished they hadn't. He was scared.

_Piranha's got to face this stuff as well, you know._

Yeah, but he had to look after her and their child. It was either that or run off and forget them, and he wasn't going to do that. It would be so easy. It would be such a relief. But he wouldn't do it.

Yeah, he told himself, squinting in the harsh lighting. You gotta face it head on, all that stuff. And that's that.

The abandoned loft in Benten-cho was pretty cramped, but it had a great view of the city. Tab could see the district spread out beneath him like coloured stars. 

But he didn't have time to spend on gazing. He had work to do.

He pulled off the gloves he was wearing, and switched on the computer. It whined softly as it booted up, and the screen glowed, illuminating Tab's face. As letters scrolled across the blackness, he stared into his own eyes, and grinned. If this worked, it would be…well, let's say satisfactory. And sweet. Revenge was always sweet.

The computer finished loading, and Tab opened a file and began typing.

__

Find TEMP…

Lucky the other Noise Tanks were all busy, leaving him alone. They'd want to join in, and then this wouldn't be his any more. Because he wasn't just doing this for kicks. He wasn't even just doing this for general rudie revenge. 

No. This was specific.

_Delete FILE00000HRDRV…_

This would be the last time. After this he'd stop moping. He'd become the guy the Noise Tanks thought he was. A brainy kid who'd quit the GGs because they were too dumb for him. 

_Primary Master = Primary Slave…_

And he'd never, never think about what he'd left behind again.

Typing the characters was like slotting bullets into a gun. Only cleverer. Any moron could slam a couple of rounds into their enemy. This took a bit more skill.

"Listen to yourself, Tabster." He smiled. "You're becoming that stuck-up kid already. Keep this up and everything'll be fine."

But it won't really, will it? Because you're still hurting.

__

FindData Banks Delete

The keys clicked in the empty loft. Tab's fingers were starting to sting with cold, but he ignored them. He could feel his mind predicting, considering, anticipating the technical havoc his commands were about to wreak. Everything had to be right. Each shining letter in its correct place. Sweet.

Thinking like a Noise Tank made it easier to pretend the GGs meant nothing. But not that much easier. Trying to forget it all made him want to scream, at himself, at the cops, at everyone. But he had to forget. There was nothing else he could do.

Except one last private attack, to avenge a friend.

_Find= 64092Div54897…_

Just a friend?

_Delete All…_

He has to be, now.

_Goto inbox = attach file C:\Sigmasstuff\WLH send…_

Tab closed his eyes a second. The screen had blurred and he knew it wasn't due to VDU problems.

Just get on with this. You get it right, that'll go some way to achieving payback. You get it wrong, no one's happy.

_Goto inbox = attach file C:\Sigmasstuff\lunatic Send…_

He was throwing everything he'd got at them. Just like they threw everything they'd got at him and his kind. Serve them right. 

He could hear, very faintly, the shouting of some drunken partygoers, outside. And a cop's voice: "That's right, move along please, this is a public place."

Tab grinned. If this worked, it would be even more satisfactory that they'd stood right next to his building and hadn't even guessed.

_Open Copy file C:\Sigmasstuff\doh_

The screen was filled with lines of print. Illegible to most. 

Finished.

He clicked on the Internet Explorer icon, and waited as the modem bleeped its tune into the darkness. 

Nearly there…

He logged into Hotmail, began to type.

_To: __OnishimaS@police.net_

__

Bcc: krokkaku@rokkaku.com

_To Whom It May Concern…_

"So I miss you," he said out loud. "Is that a crime?"

_The attachment to this contains most of my notes on the rudie movements I have witnessed…_

"But I've got to accept it. I don't think we're gonna meet up. Ever. That's if – if you're still alive."

_I hope this is helpful to you, you dirty scum-sucking bastards…_

Tab deleted the insults and finished the e-mail.

"You might be. But they'll have tried to make you spill, right? And if I know you you'll put up a bit of resistance…because…because you're you, okay."

_Attach File…_

"If you coped with that, you won't be in great shape. And I know the law. They don't let you out now till you're really crushed. And preferably over thirty."

_File Attached…_

Tab sighed again. "Well, here we are. Okay, get ready. This is the best virus I've been able to come up with. It does everything but play Happy Birthday when you switch the monitor on…hey, that's not a bad idea…but anyway. I hope you enjoy it, punks."

_Send…_

"Beat-sama, that's for you."

He shut down the computer, and moved away from it, back to the window. Benten-cho glittered. Slits of red, dots of orange, green and blue Japanese characters holding back the darkness. 

This was his home now. He was a Noise Tank now. Beat was gone now.

And that was that.

Gum sat in the cell and wondered if kicking something would improve her feelings. 

Her feet were bare now, so she decided not to. But it didn't help much. She was bubbling with rage. They'd caught her and she so, so, _so _didn't need this. 

She started slapping the orange dust off her black top and jeans. Kogane factory yard was not a nice place to get arrested. She'd fallen down the heap of cars onto the ground and it felt like every inch of her skin was bruised. 

Her forehead stung. She touched it and red came off on her fingers. Nuts. Now if you'd worn your helmet…

I'm sick of that old thing. What's wrong with wanting a new image?

They'd pulled her hair. That was the disadvantage of having it long. She twisted a few strands round her fingers, plaited it. The advantage was she always had something to fiddle with. Of course, it tangled easily, and it was much harder to wash, but…

She remembered what he'd said about it, and found herself smiling, heat rising in her heart. 

Oh, honestly! You're in jail and all you can think about is love?

Or lust. Not love. He doesn't do love.

She was waiting here while they searched their records, to see if they could find three sightings of her being a rudie. If they could, it was wham, bam, in the slammer, ma'am, and that would be it. 

That was why she was thinking about her hair, about guys, about whether to kick the wall. If she thought about the serious stuff, she'd start screaming. There'd been a kid in one of the other cells who'd done just that, yelled and yelled until they grabbed him out and dragged him into Onishima's office. Then it had all gone quiet.

Gum didn't want to draw attention to herself like that.

They'd find three sightings. If they could book Beat they could book her. 

He'd been in five years. What had happened to him? 

She remembered him, naïve or angry or fair or amiable, and then she heard someone crying out, and she shuddered, and the anger snarled up again. The _bastards! _They could've done anything to him and god damn it, he didn't deserve it! Her hands ached, she curled them into fists, smashing their skulls would be too good for them…

Stop it, she told herself. You sound like Cube and Garam.

At the thought of those two a chill ran through her body, and she wrapped her arms around herself. She knew what their little Mafia group was doing. Everyone did if they saw the newspapers. She couldn't bear to read what had happened to some of the victims. Especially the ones who'd been surprised in their homes, and had families. It was depressing reading anyway, but when you thought of people you'd known doing that – well, you didn't. Think about it, that is. It wasn't something you could take in.

She heard footsteps, and saw Onishima walking towards her cell. Before he could even speak she knew what he was going to say. He'd found the three sightings of her. She was toast.

That was that.

Yo-Yo swallowed another mouthful of beer, and wondered why there appeared to be two cars in the garage.

She'd gone. He'd lost her. He was a useless, idiotic rudie and he'd lost her. She'd never get out of there, how could he get her on his own? His own. He was on his own.

He was the last of the GGs.

"Oh, shit!" He threw the beer can across the garage, and it bounced off the sound system.

The last of the GGs, like the last of the dinosaurs. Or some other extinct spee – specci – sppeec – animal thingys. They'd all gone away and left him. 

Another beer would be good.

He was in darkness. The window cast a square of light onto the floor, gold-plating the pizza boxes, chocolate wrappers, spray paint cans and magazines strewn across the floor.

At least when Gum had been here she'd tidied up a bit. She was no homemaker, but she made sure she had a good place to live.

All gone. He was all on his own. 

He took another mouthful of drink, felt it burn its way down his throat. Any of the others would go in and rescue her. _She'd _go in and rescue her. He couldn't. He was too young, and he was quite possibly too drunk. 

The youngest GG is the last surviving one, he thought darkly. That's ironinical. Ironish? Ironyese? The joking, pervert kid who never takes aaaaanything seriously. 

Been alone for much of his life. Most of it, in fact. Could handle it now, right? But he missed the GGs. They were family. Family and friends and totally, completely gone.

And as for Gum…

Forget her. Maybe if I keep drinking enough, it'll all go okay again. 

His mind thought that was a brilliant idea. Cos he was on his own now. Completely abanond. Adandened. Abadananaed – everyone else had gone away and left him. 

And that was that.

Beat lay in the dark, trying not to move or make a sound. He knew he was probably safe at the moment. But it was best to make sure. Don't draw attention to yourself, and you might just survive this.

His arm was starting to throb, under the mess of bruises. It hadn't stopped hurting since this morning, when he'd once again practised saying 'I don't know anything.' 

They didn't believe him, and why should they? They'd seen him in the company of other rudies. They had evidence of it, damn it, that was why he was here. 

_So they won't give up, will they? And sooner or later you'll tell them everything._

I won't. I won't, and they can't make me.

_I think they can._

He closed his eyes against the sneering thought, but he knew it was right. Telling all was beginning to seem like such a nice option. So comfortable. So safe. Just say a few words, and they'd leave him alone.

_And what would the others think about that? _another voice demanded. _You'd sure be out of a gang position then. That's the lowest thing you can do, selling out your friends._

Well, he wouldn't, that was all. Wouldn't say anything except 'I don't know.' Maybe they'd get real mad, and kill him, and the problem would be solved. 

But if they didn't, this would go on, day after day, week after week, month after month…

Beat deliberately gripped his bruised arm, and the pain that screeched up it freed him from the thought. Take it slow, dude. One day at a time. All that shit. 

__

Anyway, there's no point in complaining, on account of how it's your fault you're in here. Mr Trusting. Like some dumb dog. You never learn, do you? 

The darkness was very thick. They'd given him a cell without a window, just in case someone tried a jailbreak. Which meant at night, i.e now, it felt like there was nothing but him, him and his bruises. He wanted light, natural light, not this electric stuff, he wanted a sky to skate under, he wanted weather, he wanted out of this life and this pain. 

_I want, I want, I want. That all you can do? Any of the other GGs could handle this better than you're doing. Gum'd keep fighting till they did kill her, Tab'd _– Beat gripped his arm again until his ears rang from the pain, it was still better than thinking about Tab – _Tab'd never stop hoping and keeping cool, Garam can handle angst like nobody's business, Mew's smart enough to manipulate the situation, Yo-Yo'd do something, not just lie here, they wouldn't even be able to scratch Combo, Cube's faced down much tougher shit than this, Piranha's got sense and sanity and they can't take that from her, and Slate can lock up his fears like Onishima's locked up you._

Face it, buddy, the voice continued, _Any of the other GGs would make a better leader than you. They're all a bit more suspicious, for a start. They wouldn't have made that mistake in the first place, and then they wouldn't be here._

Maybe I should just sell them out, then, Beat snapped to the voice. If they're all so much better than me. Why bother? I'm a washed-up rudie and I'm never getting out of here.

He wondered what time it was. 

Interrogation times varied. Sometimes it was the morning, sometimes the afternoon, sometimes even after lights out. Beat figured it was meant to unsettle him.

Most of the cops were actually okay. Not, like, cool or anything, but just doing their job. Some of them thought it was funny to hurt rudies. But Onishima…

Onishima was crazy.

The pain was making it hard to think about anything else now. Oh, well, sleep deprivation was supposed to work almost as well as controlled violence. More power to them. 

Were the others all okay, though? What if he had said something, something he shouldn't have, he couldn't remember exactly what he _had _said. What if they'd been caught and he just wasn't being told? They'd think he ratted them out. 

But I _didn't, _he cried out at them. I didn't, you're my gang, I may have failed as leader but I still wouldn't do that to you, would I? I didn't, I've got to believe I didn't.

Thirty years old I might get out of here. 

Who'll know me then? It don't seem real any more, the GGs or outside or anything. Maybe I just dreamed it or something. Maybe there isn't anything out there.

He shuddered.

Keep quiet. Keep quiet and you keep safe.

And that's that.


	3. Meetings

Chapter Three – Meetings

"This can't be happening!" Gum yelled. "I – I can't have – have time travelled, it's just not possible!"

Yo-Yo glared at her. "I don't believe you have either. You're trying to take yourself back, aren't you? You've whacked yourself on the head and it's unhinged your brain."

"No. No, I'm not crazy, everything else is." Gum touched the bruise on her forehead. "I fell over on Center Street, that's all. You're not Yo-Yo and I am not in 2005. I'm in 2000 and this is some dumb joke you're playing on me."

"Oh, snap out of it!" Yo-Yo yelled. "We're the last two GGs and I can't handle that on my own!"

"We're not, we're not, the others are around someplace, I know they are…" If she kept talking he wouldn't be able to speak, and prove things. "You can't make me believe it –"

"You saw it all happen, I don't understand why you're acting so weird!"

"I'm not acting weird, everything else is! And soon it'll all be normal again, I'll be back home, right year, right place, and, and all the other GGs will be with me and it'll be great and this won't have happened –"

Yo-Yo slapped her.

Gum stopped speaking as her skin stung. She stared at him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Really, I didn't want to do that. But you're getting hysterical."

"Can you fucking well blame me?" Gum snapped. "Say what you like, I am not twenty-two, look, I know it. I'm seventeen. And maybe if – if I have time travelled, which is an utterly stupid idea and totally impossible outside of extremely dodgy B-movies, then I don't need you telling me I'm insane."

"Well, prove you're seventeen, then."

"I'm not a tree!" Gum yelled. "You can't chop me down the middle and count my rings! How the hell can I prove it? Isn't there any distinguishing marks my future self is supposed to have?"

Yo-Yo blushed again. "Uh – yeah. Yeah." He swallowed. "On your right arm. The paratroopers shot you. Three months ago."

Gum rolled up the sleeve of her dress, and held out her bare, unmarked arm.

"Take a look, buddy," she said.

The colour rushed out of Yo-Yo's face.

"Okay. Okay. _You're_ joking," he said. "You got plastic surgery and decided to freak me out. Right?"

"Wrong."

"Stop it," Yo-Yo said. "Okay, it's not funny. I'm not kidding."

"No, it's not funny. It's the truth."

They stared at each other. Yo-Yo snatched off his sunglasses and massaged his temples, his eyes tired.

"Would someone please tell me," he said, "what the hell is going on?"

"I went out to look for Beat last night, September 2000, after we all got tagged up by the Love Shockers and Noise Tanks, and I fell over, and hit my head on the railing. When I woke up, it was morning, and I was here. Everything's wrong."

"But –" Yo-Yo stopped, then said, "Time travel can't happen."

"I know. I don't want to be here either."

"Well, do you know how you can get back?"

"If I knew, do you think I'd still be here now?"

"Fine, don't get at me. Right. Okay. I gotta think…"

He skated over and turned on the radio.

"…And the GGs are down by fifty percent, boys and girls! Gum got nabbed, and Onishima's counted her out! Yo-Yo better start makin' tracks – it looks like the GG reign is over at last!"

Yo-Yo looked from Gum to the radio and back again.

"Right," he said. "So you aren't her."

"Finally!"

"She's caught. I think I'm gonna get drunk again."

"Can I slap you now?" Gum said. "You can't just black out like that. Can't we try and get her out or something?"

"What's the point? What's she got to come back to? This is all that's left of the GGs. We have no turf. We have no strength. All we have is a _lot _of alcohol, which I think I'm going to go make use of."

"And then what are you going to do?" Gum snapped.

"Get some more alcohol and see if I can commit suicide by liver failure."

"Don't be so stupid. You aren't just going to give up, are you?"

"Well, you tell me if there's any other options."

"Fight!"

Yo-Yo ran a hand through his hair. "Listen. You've had five years less experience than me. Don't start being perky until you've felt what I have. Being the last GG sucks."

"Being a GG stuck in the wrong time sucks as well!"

He turned away. "Well, I can't help you there. Go to the Rokkakus. Maybe they can do something, they've got all sorts of sciencey shit up there."

"I'm a rudie! I can't just waltz in there!"

"I'm sure you'll think of something, kid."

"Kid?" Gum snapped. 

"I'm a year older than you."

"Oh boy, this really sucks!"

"Whatever. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with some drink and a bunch of interesting magazines."

"See you haven't changed in five years," Gum sneered as she marched over to the door. "Boy, I pity my future self, being stuck with you!"

She marched outside again and slammed the door behind her.

As she headed back to the bus terminal, the fury faded away to be replaced by cold terror. _Something _freaky had happened. And she was on her own.

Suddenly someone slammed into her and sent her sprawling across the ground. She twisted round to see three Love Shockers encircling her.

"What's this?" said one of them. "A trip down Memory Lane?"

"Go jump off a cliff," Gum said.

"You're on our turf, GG."

"It's not your turf. It's mine."

"I think we can disprove that. Girls – get her!"

Gum tried to get to her feet, but then one of them backhanded her round the face and she fell back. She stuck out a foot and hooked it round a Love Shocker's leg, then pulled, sending the girl crashing onto the pavement. Someone else grabbed her wrists, held them behind her back. She struggled to break free, feeling reason melt into panic, and someone kicked her, and she cried out despite herself.

"You GGs just won't give up, will you?"

"Maybe she will when she stops being a rudie."

Gum trembled as she heard the rattle of a can of paint. She'd never been tagged ten times before, but it was every rudie's fear, and seemed to echo age-old memories she'd never known.

"Let go of me!" she yelled.

"Yeah, do what she says."

A new voice joined the battle.

Gum managed to turn her head a little, and saw a Noise Tank standing a few feet away from them, arms folded.

"What's it to you, techno boy?" snapped one of the Love Shockers.

"Three against one ain't fair." There was a hiss of electricity behind his words, making his actual voice hard to pick out. Gum figured it was some technique of his mask.

"Like _you've _never done this," another Love Shocker said.

"Oh, geez, just let her up! We've all got enough turf. Go throw darts at pictures of your boyfriends or whatever it is you girls do."

Gum felt her wrists released, and fell forward. She heard the Love Shockers skate away, and looked up at the Noise Tank.

"Thanks."

"Hey, I…"

"What?"

"I don't like them. They're a bunch of bitches."

"Tell me about it." Gum stood up and dusted herself off. "You're a little out of your own turf, aren't you? Or have the Noise Tanks taken Shibuya as well?"

"They stick to Benten. You ought to know that."

"What about the Poison Jammers?"

"They're lying low. Our friendly neighbourhood police captain's been picking on 'em. Us and the Shockers keep trying to nab Kogane."

"And the GGs?"

He snorted. "What GGs?"

And then, before she could answer, he was gone.

Gum sighed and stared round the bus terminal. It was all so familiar. The billboards, the schookids crowding one corner, the sunlight through the trees.

And it was wrong.

And she was stuck.

And what had happened to her gang?

_Beat hasn't been findable for the last five years…_

Being the last GG sucks…

Tell me what's happened! she yelled. Tell me where they all are!

Nobody answered. The faded yellow light brought tears to her eyes.

Mew watched as she was driven closer to the crowd of Shibuya High School students. She picked up her bag from the floor of the car as it ground to a halt.

"Have a nice day, Miyako."

Mew nodded, and stepped out. She'd run out of class again yesterday. Well, she'd been made to leave, because she wasn't allowed to take art class. But she'd told them what she thought of them anyway. At the time it had been a relief to scream again, but now she was regretting it. She could see the smirks on her fellow students' faces.

"Hey, Miyako," someone said. "Ready to associate with us dull conformist no-hopers today?"

"Oh, come on. I didn't say that, did I?" Mew smiled, feeling the expression wobble. 

"Something like it," someone else said. "Before you ran out crying."

Mew shrugged. "I have issues, I guess."

"Oh, she has _issues," _the girl said. Mew had a feeling her name was Suki. "Well, that makes it all right, doesn't it? You rudies make me sick. You think you're so great – well, look at you. You're what, twenty or something, and you're down here stuck with us."

"I didn't want to be."

"Well, we don't want you here."

"Go talk to my probation officer then!" Mew snapped. "Explain to him that you can't handle me!"

"I think it's the other way round. You ghetto kids act like you're so hard, but you can't handle school, can you? Crying your eyes out like that all the time."

Mew pressed her lips together. They can't hurt me, she told herself. They can only talk and talking doesn't hurt. It doesn't.

I wish the GGs were here.

"I can't help what I am," she said. "Why can't you just leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"

She heard the bus rattle to a halt behind them, and turned to get onto it. Suki grabbed her collar.

"I don't like people who think they're better than everyone else," she snapped. "Watch your mouth, rudie scum."

"Wow, Police Chief Onishima reincarnated. You even have the dodgy skin quality. You're not related, are you?"

Suki shoved past her. Mew stumbled, and dropped her bag. Snatching it up, she stepped onto the bus.

Instantly everyone reshuffled their bags or coats to fill up the empty spaces.

Mew stood in the aisle and tried not to scream. So far this day sucked."Come on," yelled the driver. "Just sit down already!"

"No one wants a rudie sitting next to them," Suki muttered from the back seat. 

"Look, if you don't sit down we're not moving," the driver said.

Suki looked round the bus, eyes narrowed. Then she smiled. "Hey, Isas, you don't mind Miyako sitting next to you, do you?"

A skinny guy sitting near the front looked up nervously. "Uhh…"

"Come on, Miyako," Suki said. "Some of us can actually handle school."

Mew flipped her off and walked towards Isas, who swept his bag and coat off the seat and then turned back to his book. She saw him tense as she sat down.

"Don't act friendly or anything," she said as the bus started to move.

"I'm not that good at small talk."

"I don't ask for small talk. Just sitting next to someone who doesn't treat me like I've got leprosy would be nice."

He shrugged. "I just want to read, okay?"

"What are you reading?"

"Oh – nothing. Just – just something."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Mew twitched the book out of his hands and stared at the cover. "Algebra: The Science of Maths? Wait a minute…"

Hidden in the middle of the large, equation-filled pages was a smaller book. Mew pulled it out. The sight of the cover made her ribs tighten, and she couldn't breathe for a second.

"Paint the Town Red – Tags I Have Known." 

And on the front was her own Sweeter Than Sugar.

"What – what is this?" she hissed.

Isas snatched it back from her. "None of your business, rudie!"

"Hey, you're one to talk. Don't tell me you go skating after you've done all your homework."

"I'm just interested, okay?"

"Where did you get this and what's my tag doing on the front of it?"

Isas's eyes widened. "This is _your_ tag?"

"Yes!"

"No way."

Why are you reading it?"

Isas shrugged. "I found it in a second-hand bookshop about a year or two ago. And I just like it, okay? I know you think it's dumb, anyone but ghetto sob story kids liking this stuff, but I do. Now if you don't mind…"

He shoved it back between the pages of 'Algebra: the Science of Maths' and began studying it again.

Mew swallowed. She knew she should leave all this alone. She had to start giving up someday and looking at this was the exact opposite. But she yearned just to see those tags…it was a physical hunger which made her fingers twitch.

"Please, Isas," she said. "Just let me see."

Isas groaned and handed her the book. Mew gently turned the pages, feeling like she was looking at something holy, something precious, something she'd thought she'd lost.

"Tougher Than You…" she whispered. "Beat This…Beware My Bite…"

Tears stung her eyes, and she heard her voice break. Quickly she rubbed her wrist over her cheeks, and felt dampness smear her skin.

"What's with you?" Isas said. "They're only pictures."

"They're only pictures?" Mew snapped, just managing to keep her voice low. "They're not only damn pictures. They're GG tags. They're my gang's tags. Look…" She flipped through until she came to 'Purr Like A Kitten, Fight Like A Tiger.' "There. That was mine, my personal one."

Isas squinted at it. "Mew?"

"That's my proper name. Miyako is the one they've landed me with."

The bus screeched to a halt. Mew glanced out of the window and saw they'd arrived at school. She got to her feet, picked up her bag, and sighed. Double Maths first thing. She didn't _do _Maths. 

She'd just got off the bus when she felt a tap on her shoulder. "Uh…Miyako…Mew?"

Mew shivered. She'd thought she'd be ecstatic if someone called her that again. Now that it had happened, she was just weirded out. Geez…perhaps she was already changing. Already turning into Miyako. Oh, god, no…

"Yeah?" She turned round. It was Isas, blushing.

"Um…I thought…here, you can have this."

He held out the book to her.

"You're kidding," Mew said. "I can't take this, it's yours." She wanted it. She wanted it so, so badly, like chocolate when dieting, like a one-night-stand when engaged. But Isas looked so pathetic standing there. 

"It's yours," he said. "You're a – a GG. I'm just a guy who wants to go skating after he's done all his homework, remember? Take it."

He ran a hand through his black hair, and Mew suddenly wanted to hug him. She snatched the book.

"Thank you," she said. "Thank you so much…"

He shrugged his coat-hanger shoulders. "Don't worry about it."

And he turned and walked away.

Mew shoved the book in her bag, shivering with excitement. A small act of rebellion. Something that was Mew's, not Miyako's. Something that would get her into serious trouble if she were caught with it.

But she couldn't care about that now.

"Thank you," she called again. But he'd already gone. 

Gum clenched her fists. She wasn't going to be left alone. She needed answers _somehow._

"Wait!" she yelled, and skated out of the bus terminal in the direction the Noise Tank had gone. As she rushed past the square she saw him, a white figure shining in the sun as he dashed up Center Street.

She called again, put on an extra burst of speed, her muscles starting to ache. The sun had risen for sure now, soaking the area in warmth, and she felt sweat start to bubble up on her skin.

He stopped, stood waiting for her, leaning against a tree. As she caught up, breathing heavily, he said, "What do you want?"

"Tell me…tell me what happened to the GGs…" Gum gasped.

"Why? You should know."

"I don't, I…" She stopped. _I travelled through time and I don't know what's going on. _Oh, please.

"What? You got amnesia or something?"

"Yeah. Yeah!" She rubbed the bruise on her forehead. "I fell over here last night, hit my head on the railing. Now I can't remember anything."

He shrugged. "Well, I don't think I'm the person to tell you."

"Oh, yeah? Why not?"

"Uh…I'm a Noise Tank, aren't I? You should ask a GG."

"The only GG left won't tell me."

"What's the point in talking 'bout it all?"

"Because I need to know."

She stared at him, seeing her own face reflected in his goggles. "Please."

He sighed, causing a hiss of static underneath his voice. "Okay. Fine. Do you know who you are?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know where this is?"

"Shibuya-cho."

"But you don't know what happened to the GGs."

"No!"

"All right. I'll tell you. But not here, the Love Shockers might still be lurking about. Let's go to Benten."

Gum skated along behind him until they reached the Noise Tanks' district. It looked the same as it always had – not that she came here much during the day, but she couldn't see any significant changes. A few shops were out of business, a few doors were painted different colours, but that was it. 

In a way she wanted everything to be different. Then she could have a real reason to panic. 

They skated into Benten Square. Gum followed the Noise Tank up the ramp and leapt after him onto the central pole in the middle of the area.

He sat down, and motioned for her to do the same. "So spill. What do you want to know?"

"Where are all the GGs? What happened to them? I know Yo-Yo's still around, and – and Gum is in jail…"

"I thought you weren't her," he said. "She must be…twenty-two. You're eighteen at the most. When I saw you, you looked so familiar I had to help you, but…you a fan of the GGs or something? A wannabe?"

There was scorn in his voice. Gum shrugged and decided not to answer the question. "What about the rest of them?"

"Well, it all started on the 24th September, 2000. The GGs were set up and got tagged a bunch of times. You know this?"

"Everyone was angry with Beat. He stormed out, and – uh – Gum went after him."

"That's it. But she came back, later on, and said she'd lost him."

"Did she?" Oh, well, nice to know what I should be doing.

"Yeah." The Noise Tank glanced down at his lap, his mask sinking into shadow. "And then – the GGs – heard that he'd been arrested."

Gum swallowed. 

"You remember the three-strikes-and-you're-out law?" the Noise Tank asked.

She shook her head.

"Onishima had been leading up to it for some time, put it into force the night Beat disappeared. Basically, whenever the cops have a run-in with a rudie, they log the incident, any distinguishing marks the rudie has, that sort of thing. If you get actually caught, they search the files, and if they can pick out three incidents that could be attributed to you, that's it. No trial. You're sent down, and then you're only allowed out when they can prove you've been reformed."

"That's stupid," Gum snapped. "Are they allowed to do that? Surely –"

"Who cares? A lot of people hate rudies, you know. We bug them, and they ain't gonna campaign too hard for justice."

"Isn't it worse for the Noise Tanks? I mean, you all look alike."

"Well, when a Noise Tank gets caught, I've heard Onishima doesn't even bother to check the records. But he doesn't try too hard to prove anyone's innocence, you know what he's like."

"So – so Beat's been arrested?" Gum stared out over the sunny skyscrapers and felt a sharp pain in her throat. He wouldn't be able to handle it. She knew he wouldn't. 

"You got it. We don't know shit about him now, what they did, whether he's okay." He snorted. "Potts started missing him. He's gone now, he went out to look for his master and we never saw him again."

He sighed, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"But this law, right, it did piss some people off. Rudies, mainly. And some of them started saying they should do something. And then some bright spark had an idea – why not get tough with the cops?"

"Get tough?"

The Noise Tank nodded. "Cops started getting killed. Bombs in unexpected places. Drive-by shootings. Some rudies were happy, but…I don't know, we thought it was better to leave well enough alone. Then Cube and Garam started joining in."

"You're kidding." 

"No. They started drifting away from the rest of the GGs, and because there wasn't a leader any more…they never got round to choosing one…no one could tell 'em to stop."

"So they – they killed people?"

"Combo tried to talk to them," the Noise Tank said. "He told Cube she was being stupid, that she'd get caught, get the electric chair, she should quit. She freaked and told him to get lost. He told her she was immature and thought violence could solve all her problems. She told him he was sticking his head in the sand and it was his fault Coin had died. It all went downhill from there."

"And?"

"Combo walked out and headed back to Grind City, I think. Cube and Garam went off to the Skulls – that's the group. No one's seen 'em since."

"Have they got caught?" Inside Gum was desperately searching for something that would improve this situation. Outside she tried to look calm.

"Not as far as I know. I don't know if any of the Skulls have, I bet the publicity would go through the roof if they did."

"What happened next?"

"Piranha and Slate had been going out. And they'd been getting pretty close. And then Piranha found out she was pregnant."

"What?"

"She was pregnant. I think something didn't work – I know they didn't do it on purpose. It was getting more violent out there now, the cops were scared of the Skulls and the rudies were scared of the cops and the Skulls kicked the Noise Tanks out of their HQ. Slate and Piranha knew that rudie was a real risky job now, Slate didn't want her getting hurt and both of them wanted to protect the kid."

"So they left?"

"They left. They've set up home together. I haven't seen 'em, none of u – the GGs have."

"Then what?"

"Mew got captured about six months ago. Don't know what happened to her. And that's that."

Gum stared at him, not wanting to believe all this. It had to be a joke. It had to be.

If it wasn't, she'd just stepped forward five years and missed the biggest shake-up the GGs had ever had.

"Hang on," she said at last. "You missed someone. What – what happened to Tab?"

If he was dead…suddenly she wanted to run, or stick her fingers in her ears, just not listen to what the answer could be.

"Oh, him," the Noise Tank said. "Look, who are you, anyway? Why're you so fixed on the GGs?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Now what's happened to Tab?"

Her companion was silent for a moment.

"He joined the Noise Tanks," he said at last. 

Gum stared at him. "You…"

"That's all I'm saying."

"Who the hell are you?"

"Who the hell are _you?"_

Gum stared down at the platform they were sitting on, picked at it. It was warm, glowing with sunlight. 

"I time-travelled," she said.

He stared at her, didn't say anything. 

She explained what had happened, knowing as she did that this wasn't going to work. He wouldn't believe her. He wouldn't believe her, and why should he? _She_ didn't believe her.

"Gum did have a fall the night Beat disappeared," he said. "She got a bruise just where you have one. And – man, you do look like her. But…"

"I know, I know, it's not possible. That's what Yo-Yo said."

He reached up and took off his mask. Gum felt her heartbeat speed up. Please let it be…

Tab stared back at her. He was older, thinner, his eyes shadowed, looking like mental scars. But it was him. It was a GG. Someone familiar, someone alive, someone who'd listened to her.

"Are you – are you all right?" she asked at last. "After what's happened in the last five years…"

"I get by."

They looked at each other. He had an edgy, suspicious gaze to his face, but he said at last, "If you ain't Gum, can I have the number of the people who made you up to look like her? It's the best work I've ever seen."

"Do you believe me?"

"I don't know what I believe. If someone had told me back then soon I'd be a Noise Tank I wouldn't have believed them either. You said you've come from the night Beat disappeared?"

"Yeah."

"If we could get you back…"

"I could change it."

"You could stop all this."

"But how?" Gum said. "You're not gonna keep hitting me over the head till something happens."

"Very funny." Tab stood up. "I don't know what we'll do, but there's gotta be something. I'll ask the other Noise Tanks, maybe. But first let's go talk to Yo-Yo. You may as well get him to see sense."

He leapt off the platform. Gum followed, and they both landed on the ground, raising a cloud of dust. Gum coughed as it caught her face. 

"Tab," she asked, spitting out dust. "Why'd you join the Noise Tanks?"

He shrugged. "Too many memories. Time to move on. All that shit."

"That's no answer."

"I'll tell you later. Come on."

Cube looked over at Garam. He was sitting there, mingled with the shadow, tilting his gun so that it caught the light that filtered through from the small window above them.

He looked unapproachable.

She walked over to him anyway. "Hey, lover, how's things?"

He didn't look at her. "Fine. How'd your mission go?"

Cube sighed. "Oh, forget that."

"That's it?" Garam said. "Forget it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, when you don't just ice a cop but do his wife and kids as well, it's a little hard to forget."

"They screwed up my life. Why should I go easy on them?" Please don't leave me, Garam. Please please please…

"His kids? What did they do, throw teddy bears at you?" 

He looked up at her at last, pulling off his sunglasses, and Cube's mind doubled over as his glance hit her.

"It was an order," she said.

"Like hell it was. You're nothing but a sadist."

"And you're nothing but a weakling," Cube said before she could start hurting from his words.

Garam's eyes widened. "Well if that's what you think, why'd you go out with me?"

"Because I needed occupying until something better came along." I'm not a sadist. I have a job to do, that's all. And besides, they deserve it, all of them. They do, I have to believe that…

"You're a bitch."

"You're an idiot."

She turned away from him, and saw the other member of their group, Saburo, coming towards them. In the Skulls the members lived in groups of threes in different places in Tokyo-to, so that if someone was caught only two other people could ever be betrayed. 

"Hey, Cube, Garam," he called. "Got another job for you."

"What?"

"Guy named Miyamoto." Saburo ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Lives in Kibogaoka, near to the Benten boundary."

"Who're you ordering?" Cube asked. "Me or him?"

"Well, you like paying house calls, don't you?" Saburo grinned.

Cube could suddenly feel Garam's stare on the back of her neck, and it hurt.

I'm not gonna let you give me a guilt trip, she thought. "Yeah."

"So you may as well do it."

"Cool." Cube picked up her gun. "Come midnight, I'll be there."

"Better make it four this afternoon. He's on the night shift."

"Sweet." Cube flipped her gun up into the air and caught it again. "I'm totally cool with that."

She could still feel Garam staring at her as she packed her bag.

Mew had been glancing at the book of tags all through school, in secret, like sipping something illegal. She knew it was dangerous. She knew she was going around with a stupid smile like she was in love.

She didn't care.

Now she stood at the bus stop, waiting, and actually feeling happy.

Actually, she'd been waiting quite some time. As had Suki, Isas and the rest of their classmates.

At last, an hour after the bus had been supposed to get there, the secretary walked out and told them it had been cancelled.

"Oh, great," Suki said. "And how am I supposed to get home?"

"You're not the only one, you know," Mew said. 

"Well, I guess you must be used to walking – or should I say skating – long distances," Suki said. "You lot paint buses, you don't ride in them."

"And the problem with that is?"

"Hey, cool it," Isas said.

"Wow, bookworm boy speaks up," Suki said. 

"Call a taxi," Isas said, then turned to Mew. "I can walk home. My mum doesn't like it cos of all this Skulls stuff, but I don't reckon she'll mind this once."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, but look. You can walk home with me, and we can call your parents from there."

"Rudies don't have parents," Suki snapped. "They get thrown out, or abandoned on doorsteps, or fucked or punched by their nearest and dearest. Ghetto sob stories, right, Miyako?"

Mew felt hot, flickering anger quiver in her chest, rushed over and slapped Suki round the face. "You take that back!" she shouted. "What the hell do you know about that sort of stuff? You know nothing, just keep your big mouth shut, enjoy your wonderful life and let me get on with my shit one!"

Suki stumbled back, rubbing her cheek. Mew stood, gasping for breath, feeling like she was either about to burst into tears or rub Suki's face into the pavement.

"Mew," Isas whispered, "Come on. Come home with me and forget her. If you hit her again you'll just get in trouble."

Mew wanted – oh, she wanted so much – to hit Suki again, hit her and hit her until she knew how it felt to hurt – but with a painful effort she restrained herself.

"All right."

"You'll be sorry for this, Miyamoto Isas!" Suki screamed from behind them. "You and your little rudie friend!"

Mew walked angrily along, slamming her feet down on the pavement, tears of fury pooling in her eyes.

"Mew?" Isas said at last.

"What?"

"Did you – did you get abused by your family?"

"No. Don't worry about it, it's just some of my friends have had stuff like that happen to them. She doesn't know –" She stopped as a sob rose up her throat.

"It's okay, she's just a jerk anyway," Isas said. "Don't worry, please don't. I'm sorry I got her mad, okay?"

"It's me she doesn't like."

They walked in silence for a bit. Mew stared at the ground, and at their shadows stretched out along it.

"My parents were divorcing," she said. "It was real bitter. They were busy with it. I – I was having a bad time at school, I couldn't do the work, and I kept getting in trouble. I picked a stupid time to tell them, and they blamed me, they both screamed at me and then started screaming at each other. I ran away and joined the Noise Tanks – that's a gang in Benten-cho. Later I ended up with the GGs."

"I'm sorry."

Mew shrugged. "It's ancient history now. Years ago."

They walked on a little more, the sunlight dappling their faces.

"Mew," Isas said. "You got arrested, didn't you?"

Mew nodded.

"Was it – was it really bad?"

Mew swallowed. "I have never been so scared."

"Really?" He sounded gloomy.

"You don't understand. Our leader was arrested, five years ago, and we haven't heard anything about him since…we don't know what's happened to him. They grabbed me and all I could think was I was gonna disappear like him."

She took a deep breath, feeling the old fear climb up her throat. "It was so stupid…I was out on my own, in Benten again, and they just grabbed me. I wasn't listening, I didn't hear them coming, I was grabbed and I couldn't get away…they drove me down the station, and when they got there they locked me up and I just cried and cried, I couldn't stop and I _hated _myself…"

She heard her voice shake, and dragged her mind away from the memory.

"I was lucky, they only had two sightings of me. So I ended up at school. You know I'm on probation."

She looked over at Isas. He was white.

"What's with you?"

"You're gonna hate me."

"Why?"

"My – my dad's a cop, okay?" Isas snapped. "He probably did that to you."

"But you – you, reading that book –"

"He'd freak, I'll bet. He doesn't know anything about it."

Mew stared at him. He was a Keisatsu's son. She felt her hands curl into fists despite herself. The Keisatsu had frightened her, made her feel so small and stupid…and they'd arrested Beat…

But Isas hadn't done any of that.

"Well?" he snapped. "You gonna go? You don't want to be near me now, I'll bet."

"You can't get me away from here if you tried," Mew said.

"Huh?"

"You're right, I don't like cops. But I – I do like you. You gave me your book and you stuck up for me. So let's get moving."


	4. Attacks

Chapter Four – Attacks

(I think I fixed the line breaks so you can see when a new scene starts, yay for me…and I don't own JSR. Unfortunately. Please r+r!)

Gum and Tab walked back into the garage. Yo-Yo was lying flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, surrounded by several squashed beer cans.

"Ohhh…it's you…" he muttered. "And…Tab? What're you doing here? What's going on?"

"Get up and listen," Tab answered. 

"I'm busy…"

"This is more important." Tab kicked the beer cans out of the way, the hollow rattles echoing around the garage. "Now get up."

He hauled Yo-Yo to his feet. The GG wobbled slightly, but stayed standing.

"Who is this?" Tab asked, pointing to Gum.

"Some dumb chick who believes in time travel. It ain't the real Gum, she's in Sing Sing."

"I know that. She told you about the time travel?"

"Oh, god, not you as well!" Yo-Yo turned to walk away. "You two can hold your Star Trek convention, but I got better things to – yarrgh –"

Tab hauled Yo-Yo back by the collar. "Listen. According to her, the last date she saw was September 24th, 2000. That mean anything to you?"

"No. Now let go…"

"That was the night Beat disappeared. Now if we can get her back the right time, she can make it so he doesn't have to."

"And how're we meant to do that? Get her back, I mean. Even the Noise Tanks can't, or are you more advanced than I thought?"

"One of us might know how to," Tab said. "But you can at least let her stay here until we've thought of something."

"She's not a GG," Yo-Yo muttered.

"I am so a GG." Gum gripped Yo-Yo by the front of his collar. "At least I'm keeping positive here. You just want to kill off the last few brain cells."

"Will you two please get off!" Yo-Yo shook them both free from his collar. "Look, fine, you can stay. But what's the point? I still think hitting her head damaged something in that brain and this time travel stuff is a load of bull."

"Well, it didn't," Gum said. "This is real, now, and I know I wasn't here last night. Anyway, why don't you want to believe it? If it's true, there's a chance I could change all this."

_"I_ used to think there was a chance we could all change this," Yo-Yo said. "That was before people started leaving." He glared at Tab.

"We could get them back," Gum said.

"Yeah, right!"

"We could! Three are in jail – we've done jailbreaks before. We can talk to Piranha and Slate –"

"They won't come."

"Well, we can try! And we can try and get in touch with Combo, and Cube and Garam…"

"You want to try talking to the Skulls?" Yo-Yo snorted. "Write your will first. And give me instructions for your funeral."

"I don't know…" Tab said. "Combo might come back, at least. And if we could do a jailbreak…"

"We'd probably end up in there ourselves," Yo-Yo said.

"Geez, what is with you?" Gum yelled. "Can't you put a bit of effort in?"

"No, maybe I can't!" Yo-Yo stood up. For the first time in Gum's life, he was taller than her. "What's the point? As soon as we get something good going it ends up smashed, so why bother?"

"You've got to try and get it back! The Yo-Yo I know would've tried, he wouldn't have just sat around getting pissed out of his skull!"

"Well I'm not the Yo-Yo you knew! That was five damn years ago and I've got used to what I've got now!"

"But you could have something better," Tab said before Gum could speak.

"When did you get all dreamy-eyed?" Yo-Yo snapped. 

"Oh, come on, what've we got to lose?" Tab said. 

"Our lives. Our freedom. Possibly our limbs."

"We're rudies. That's what we've always got to lose. The point is we don't sit around worrying about that. We go in and just – paint the town red. I think we should try because if we don't we may as well quit being rudies right now. You're on the way to that – I haven't seen any GGs tags for ages –"

"We painted 'em, it's just people keep covering 'em up. Okay?"

"Then get more people. And paint more tags."

There was a short silence. Then Yo-Yo shrugged. 

"A jailbreak, did you say?"

***

Future Gum – though she would have been baffled to hear herself called that – sat on the cell bed and tried to think.

She had to get out of here. She was not going to just sit here and watch her life go by. She was getting out of here.

She just wasn't sure how.

They'd moved her from the police holding cells on the ground floor to this one, which was on the second or third. The station had expanded since the new law to accommodate many more prisoners, becoming jail and station combined. Gum's new location wasn't an improvement. 

Cramped, with a flat thin bed along one side, concrete walls and floor, barred window. The top of the door was also barred, the bottom half metal, and stripes of shadow fell onto Gum's face. 

This was not, repeat not going to be her surroundings for the next ten years. 

Think. Think.

Getting up, she crossed over to stand next to the door. Locked. Duh. She drew another deep breath – don't panic, don't panic – and considered her options.

There weren't many, and she found her thoughts wandering. He'd said last night he'd always thought she was pretty, but he'd never had the courage to speak up. She wanted to tell him she didn't mind, that she was just glad he'd told her at last. Maybe this relationship wouldn't work, but it was human contact, human love. It was all she had. Maybe all he had. 

_That's the corniest thing I've ever heard. Look, buddy, he doesn't fall in love, he doesn't remember special days, he doesn't stay faithful, he's basically no good for you! You don't need a boyfriend, they're useless and all they do is break your heart._

But…

Footsteps coming down the corridor slapped her back to reality, and she cursed her brain. Why couldn't it occupy itself doing something useful?

She leant back against the wall. The footsteps stopped at her door, and she heard the rattle of keys. Through the bars she saw a female prison guard unlocking the door, and flattened herself against the wall. Geez, did Onishima want her to tell him about rudies? She had nothing to tell. The GGs were no more.

Not that he'd believe her…

The door swung open. 

Gum stuck out her foot before she could think, and the woman fell. Gum dashed forward and pinned her to the ground. "Don't move," she hissed, keeping her voice low. "Don't move or I'll kill you."

The woman froze. Gum glanced at her belt, saw stun gun, handcuffs, truncheon. Stun gun. Excellent.

She grabbed it, hands shaking, finger slipping on the trigger, fired, she saw the burst of blue electricity hit, the woman gasped, then her eyes closed.

Gum breathed out slowly, her heart humming against her ribs. Okay. A totally unplanned attack, but one that seemed to have worked.

She pushed the cell door to and started pulling off the woman's uniform. If this worked it would be a miracle…no, it would work, she had to stay positive. She wriggled out of her own clothes, tried to ignore the cold air nipping her skin, pulled the uniform on. 

Running her hands through her hair, she scrumpled it up and shoved it under the guard's cap. Spat on her fingers and tried to rub the black tag shape off her cheek. Finally she stood up, trembling all over. She felt inept, incompetent, immature.

Took a deep breath, straightened the white shirt, and walked out of the cell.

***

Mew squinted as the Kogane sunlight struck her full in the face. Warmth rose from the ground and walls, and she was hot and sticky under her uniform. She followed Isas along the humid shadowy streets of Kibogaoka until he stopped at one of the identical front doors.

A nervous-looking woman opened it. "Isas," she gasped. "Oh, thank goodness you're safe…"

"Mum, the bus was cancelled, that's all." Isas shuffled his feet. "This is Miyako…uh…can she use our phone and stay a while?"

Isas's mother gave her a quick smile. "Of course. Please, come in. Isas, keep it down, won't you, your father's asleep."

Mew swallowed as she walked into the Miyamoto's hallway. It was carpeted in bright yellow which echoed the daylight draped through the windows. 

"Would you like to come upstairs?" Isas asked. Boy, he did look nervous. Mew smiled. "I'd love to."

The banister was burnished wood, smooth under her fingers. Halfway up the stairs was a window – Mew caught a glimpse of red and green Kogane roofs. She wondered if she'd ever skated over Isas's house.

So far, it all looked normal.

Well, of course it would, she chided herself. Cops are people whatever you like to think. And they have families and homes and carpets so stop gawping, okay? Isas feels bad enough about his dad already.

He pushed open a door and Mew followed him inside.

"Nice bedroom," she said. The walls were white, but they were plastered with posters – anime, music, movies. Typical teenage boy. Suddenly she felt very old.

Isas grinned, quickly, like a flicker of light. "I'd put up some other stuff, but my dad wouldn't like it."

"Other stuff?"

"Someone's been putting out posters of the tags in the book. Look." He reached down behind the desk, dislodging a book and several pieces of paper as he did so, and pulled out some laminated posters.

Each one had an X-tra large tag on it, and each tag was one she recognised.

"Where did you get them?" she asked, feeling that stupid grin flood over her face.

"Another second-hand shop. They have a bunch of posters, and lately these ones have been in there, all the time. Why? You think it's someone you know?"

"They're all GG tags." Mew tried to speak calmly, but she could hear her voice trembling with excitement. "But…I don't know. Maybe someone's turned professional, or maybe they're just copies."

"Copies?"

"A graffiti artist who can mimic GG tags. They are beautiful though. Doesn't it say who did them?"

"Nope. I've looked. There's nothing but the picture itself, no name or nothing. Can't you work out who it is from the tag?"

Mew shook her head. "We all did these. Look, I'd better call the home, so they know I haven't gone AWOL. Can I use your phone?"

Isas nodded, and they walked downstairs into the kitchen. This was also yellow, but paler. Mew made the call, ignoring the frosty tones on the other end, and then turned back to Isas.

"You want some juice or something?" he said.

"Sure."

This was so civilised, Mew thought. Boy and girl go to the house and drink juice. Sweet. Maybe we'll go for a nice, healthy walk later on. 

She didn't mind hanging out with Isas though. He at least didn't pick on her. Unlike everyone else.

***

Cube stood outside the house, in the shadows. She didn't like doing daylight jobs. It made her feel more vulnerable. She could be seen. She could be spotted.

__

…Monster, monster, monster…

But she had a job to do. She had a mask on. It should be okay. 

Gripping the gun tighter with one hand, she walked towards the hall window. It was open, and it was simple for her to slide her hand in and unhook the catch, pushing it wide enough for her to climb in.

Slithering into the hall, she felt adrenaline start to pump through her body like white fire. There were voices in the kitchen. Time to start the ball rolling.

***

There was a crash as the glass Isas was holding exploded.

Mew spun round, and saw the black figure in the doorway. White skull on the chest.

Oh, shit.

The figure levelled the gun, pointed it at her.

***

Cube cursed silently. How could she have missed? She'd meant to hit the boy, not the glass. Oh, well…

The girl turned to face her…

The sight lines of the gun zoned in on her face…

Cube's world stumbled…

***

"Please – don't!" 

Mew never remembered shouting that.

***

Cube froze.

That voice.

Mew.

A GG.

She swung the gun away…

***

Mew saw the gun barrel focus on Isas.

"Don't you dare!" she screamed, and ran towards the Skull.

She expected to get shot.

She wasn't.

***

Cube knew she should fire. But – but this was Mew, for heaven's sake…

Hands on her face, struggling to rip off her mask…

***

I'm going to die, Mew thought, even as she struggled to get the girl's mask off…

There was sunlight shining through onto the kitchen table. There were the dust motes in the beam, hovering there like glitter mosquitoes. There was Isas, standing there, eyes wide, pineapple juice staining his shirt…

…the mask came off…

There was Cube, eyes like ink spills, dark hair tangled, a scar running down one cheek.

Mew couldn't move. Her body seemed separate from her mind, which had flown up to the ceiling and was staring at the schoolgirl and the killer facing each other across a gun.

***

__

Kill her…

Cube could feel the gun clawing into her hands, the trigger smooth under her finger, a tiny thing connected to the power supplies of life and death.

_Monster…_

Mew was standing there, eyes gaping as she stared. Her school collar was crooked, there were specks of sweat on her shirt, her patent shoes were covered in Kogane dust. She was real. She was alive.

_Kill her…_

You've got a job to do, you can't let feelings get in your way. You have to do it, you're the best at what you do, what's she doing in a cop's house anyway?

_Monster…_

She's a GG and no one, _no one, _kills their own gang members. You can't do it. And if Garam found out about this he'd hate you forever.

_Kill her…_

You've got a job to do…

_Monster…_

No one kills their own gang…

_Kill her…_

Job to do

_Monster…_

Kills their own gang

_Kill her_

Monster

Killher

Monster

KillherMonsterKillherMonster…

_"Shut up!"_

***

Cube's eyes were crumpled as she screamed.

***

Mew stared, face filled with horror…shock…disgust…

Cube swung away from her, don't look at me like that…

Running into the hall, wriggling out through the window, and then running, running, running down Kogane streets, back to Benten, to safety, to the present. Because the past was alive in that house. And it had tried to get her.

***

Mew slowly became aware that someone was talking to her.

"Mew? Miyako? Are you okay? Did she hurt you? Mew? Please talk to me!"

"Isas…" That was it. As Mew spoke the word, she felt herself dropping back into her body. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, yes, the bullet missed me, it broke the glass though, Mum's gonna kill me, I'm not really supposed to use glasses, I just wanted it to look nice for you –"

"Why?" Yes. Let's talk about something normal.

"I want you to have nice things…" Isas drew a deep, shaky breath. "I want you to like me, and I don't know why, normally I can't care less if people don't like me…"

Mew focused on him, slowly, her eyes carefully going through the motions as if they were on thin ice. Black hair, dark eyes, face too white, cold as snow, he could be ill.

"Sit down," she said. Her tongue felt too big for her mouth. She felt drunk. She felt as if she'd just been punched in the teeth.

Isas dropped into one of the kitchen chairs. Mew did the same, holding onto the table as she did so. They stared at each other across it.

"Thank you for wanting to be nice to me," Mew said at last. She didn't know why she said it. It just seemed the right thing to say.

_Cube was here and she was going to shoot you…_

Isas was breathing quickly, gulping the air like it was rationed or like he hadn't had it for a month. "They – they're after us – the Skulls – they're gonna come back –"

"I'm sorry…"

"Are they rudies, Mew?"

"No. Well…some are ex-rudies, I think…they don't wear skates…"

"She didn't kill us."

"No." Because she knew me. I was her friend.

"But she could have done."

"Yes."

"I'm scared." Isas got to his feet, started to pick up the pieces of broken glass. Mew got up as well and helped him. "I'm really scared."

"Me too."

"Why? You're not a cop's kid."

I knew that girl, we were friends, and she was going to kill me…

Mew shrugged. "I just was."

"She looked pretty freaked when she saw you. Did she know you?"

Mew didn't answer.

"She did, didn't she," Isas said, suddenly sounding angry. 

"Don't. Don't start getting mad with me, not now…"

Isas bit his lip. "I don't want them to hurt my family, I don't want them to hurt me. It's not my fault my father is who he is."

Cube would have killed Isas if I hadn't been there, would have killed him, killed Isas, would have killed him…

The floor rocked beneath Mew, and she sat down on it, next to Isas, who was picking up the last pieces of glass. He dropped them in the bin, and said, "Are you okay?"

"You already asked me that."

He still looked pale, even more so, his eyes were eternal black against his skin now. Mew didn't want to look into them too much. There was darkness in there. A lot of darkness.

She reached out and hugged him, and she felt him hug her back. He was trembling, warm, he smelt of pineapple juice. Mew felt her mind take flight again, hover above the cop's child and the ex-rudie, two friends, embracing on a juice-spattered kitchen floor.

***

Cube crept back into the base, and dropped the gun. It clattered across the floor, and she flung her bag after it.

"Cube, what's wrong?" Saburo asked.

"I – I goofed up."

"What do you mean?"

Cube heard her voice tremble. "I didn't do it, Saburo. I failed." She spoke faster, desperate to finish talking before she started crying. "I didn't get rid of any of them and – and I left my mask behind…"

And then the tears came.

"I'm sorry…" She rubbed them away, leaving black and white makeup streaks across her arm. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

She felt Saburo's hands on her shoulders, pressing down, strong and unrelenting. "None of the Miyamotos are dead?"

Cube shook her head. "There was someone I knew there. Someone who used to be my friend."

"Oh, Cube…" 

He put an arm round her. "Listen. I know it's hard for us. We're doing the right thing, and to do that sometimes you have to let go of friends who are wrong."

"Letting go is one thing. But Saburo, I couldn't kill her! I –"

"Ssh, Cube-chan. I know it's hard now. But if you keep trying, keep struggling, it'll get easier."

"Really?"

"I promise."

But – but what if I meet another GG that way, Cube cried in her mind. Piranha. Yo-Yo. Combo.

She hadn't thought of Combo for months – hidden him in her subconscious – but now he broke into her mind, and guilt and anger slammed into her stomach, cutting off her breath.

"What is it?" Saburo asked.

"Nothing. Nothing." Cube drew a deep breath. She didn't care about Combo any more, okay, he was nothing to her and he could damn well stay that way.

_Liar._

"Where's Garam?" she asked.

"Out getting some more bullets. We're alone."

Cube looked up at him. 

He moved closer to her, she felt his hips against hers.

Look in his eyes and see what he wants.

_Garam thinks you're a monster. At least this guy will let you be yourself._

She leaned up and kissed him on the lips. He smelt of oil, sweat, aftershave. 

His hands gripped her waist, then one held her while the other moved down, unzipping, touching, confident as if he were selecting a chocolate.

The floor was cold on her back.

What was the point of not doing it? At least she had one ally now.


	5. Dialogues

Chapter Five – Dialogues

Future Gum crept down the prison corridor, keeping her back poker-straight. She'd seen the way the other guards walked. Head up. Feet firm. Glance at the prisoners as you pass. And always look like you know where you're going.

Even if you happen to be lost.

She'd get out of here sometime. As long as she looked unobtrusive.

Had she got that tag off her face? If she hadn't, she was doing the equivalent of walking along with a sign round her neck saying, 'Look at me, I'm a rudie.' 

She touched her cheek, and groaned silently as her fingertips were blackened. How much of it was left? 

Calm. Calm. You're not a rudie, you're a guard and you're going to walk out of here and everything will be all right.

Keep walking. The corridor suddenly seemed very long, and very big. She felt like an ant. An ant trying to pretend it was a wasp.

She glanced from side to side as the other guards did, but she didn't want to look too closely. Looking at the prisoners scared her. They were nearly all rudies, and she knew if this went wrong she'd be looking into her own future, dull-eyed, skinny, bitter, bruised…

Nearly at the end of the corridor.

A familiar face.

Gum froze as their eyes met.

Beat was lying slumped on his cell bed, and when he felt her gaze on him he looked up, with that sullen tough-guy look everyone seemed to wear here – and then he squinted – and then he recognised her.

Gum forced herself to saunter across to the cell, sort out the keys, slide the correct one into the lock. She wanted to rush it all. But she couldn't, that was dangerous. 

Everything was dangerous here.

She opened her mouth to speak to him, and he put a finger to his lips, and said, loudly, "Oh, that's great. Gonna start beating on me with everyone listening?"

He emphasised the last two words. Gum nodded.

"Then where do you suggest this meeting should take place?" she said, trying to sound as haughty as possible.

He grinned slightly, and said, "Duh. At least use the proper interview rooms. If you wanna call it an interview, which I sure don't."

He got to his feet, leant close to her, whispered, "I'll tell you which way to go. Now put the cuffs on me and march me out."

"I can't –"

"It's not like it hasn't happened before. Make like you're in a movie or something."

Gum managed to get the handcuffs off her belt, her fingers so damp that she almost dropped them. Beat took her hand in his, and whispered, "Quick, or they'll start to notice something."

Hating herself, she slipped them on his wrists. It made it worse that he let her. Then she followed him out of the cell.

"Don't forget to lock the door," he mouthed. 

She almost had, and she quickly slammed it shut, the clang making her jump. Then she put a hand on Beat's shoulder – she could feel the bone a lot more clearly than she'd expected, or so it seemed – and they began to walk.

Beat hissed directions to her, and at last they reached a corridor lined with doors. Gum managed to unlock the right one, and they both hurried inside.

"Lock it," Beat said. "And don't talk too loud, I don't know how much you can hear from outside these."

Gum pushed the door shut, and relocked it. The room was empty apart from a metal table and two chairs, all bolted to the floor. She sat down facing Beat, and suddenly didn't know what to say.

"You've changed," she stammered out at last.

"You think?"

They'd taken his goggles and headphones. He still wore the same clothes he had the night he'd disappeared, but they were torn and dirty. And obviously he was older, but that hardly mattered compared to everything else.

He looked like life had got too much for him.

"Don't stare at me like I'm a zombie," he said. "Come on, I'm fine. What are you doing in here, anyway? They caught you too?"

"Yeah." She explained what had happened. 

"Is everyone still okay?" he asked. "All the GGs?"

She glanced down at the table. "I think everyone's still alive. But –"

"What?"

"There sort of isn't any GGs any more."

Beat's face whitened, and Gum gasped as the bruises on it became dark against his skin.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "They – they all got caught?"

"No. Mew did, I don't know what happened to her…"

"I haven't seen her. What about – what about the rest?"

Gum dragged her way through all the things that had happened to the GGs. 

"I'm sorry," she said. 

Beat grinned, a grin with no humour. "Well, Onishima's wasting his time with me. Haven't got a gang to betray any more, have I?"

"Don't," Gum said. "Look, it was because you vanished that it all started. We can get the others back…we have to try…"

"I'm still vanished, aren't I?"

"I'm gonna get you out of here," Gum said.

"Keep it down. You can't just walk out of the gates with me, only Onishima can authorise my freedom, which means I'm here for life. But I think, next week, I'm being transferred or something. I don't know the details, they never tell you that, it was just a remark Onishima made. That's the only time you can do it. If you want to try, of course."

"Why wouldn't we?" Gum said.

I'm hardly gonna be much help to you now. I've probably forgotten how to skate and all."

"We can teach you again. You are not gonna stay in here, and I mean that."

"That a promise?"

"You bet." Gum stared at him again, hardly able to believe she was seeing him, the real him, actually here. He'd been a memory for so long and now suddenly he was here. It was a shock. 

There were faded smears of paint on his clothes, paint that had once formed Love Shocker and Noise Tank tags. 

"How did you get caught?" she asked.

"Well, I went up Center Street and hung round there a bit. I heard you come after me, but I kept quiet because I was mad with everyone. I stayed out for most of the night…did some tagging…then I planned to head back to the garage in the morning."

"And?"

"I was in the bus terminal when the cops started arriving. What sort of concerned citizen makes a 911 call reporting reckless youth at six a.m? Anyway, I was tagging there, I guess I was trying to put off facing you guys. It was an X-tra large tag, and I wanted to finish it."

His eyes slid away from her now, stared at his hands. 

"They ran towards me. I planned to start dashing. But what I didn't know was that the back of my skate had been cracked, sometime in the last month or something. The paint had got into it, and…I don't know, neutralised the netrium or something. So I couldn't dash."

Gum shivered. 

"I ran anyway. Tried to get up onto one of the billboard platforms. I didn't have the speed and there was no way I could get it. They saw I was stuck, and they – uh – pounced. And now here I am."

"I'm sorry," Gum said. "I'm sorry…"

"Why are you apologising?"

"I should have come after you earlier! I took a shower, and I told Tab not to bother going after you. We could have avoided all this, we could have been a gang, you wouldn't have to be in here, looking like that…"

"Thanks."

"You know what I mean!" Gum felt tears rise up in her eyes. "Some friend I was, it's been driving me crazy what could be happening to you and it's all my fault…"

"Stop it," Beat said. "First of all, you have to keep your voice down. Second, I could've come back with you when you came to find me, and I didn't. That was just as dumb. Third, stop worrying about me, okay? I'm alive –"

"You're covered in bruises!" Gum forced her voice to remain quiet.

"Occupational hazard of rudie life, you may have noticed. Now listen. You get out of here, okay? Walk out as a guard – go back to the main police station bit and just stroll past the desk. If anyone asks, say you're going for a sandwich or something. Then tell the others I'm okay, because I am."

"We'll get you out."

"Okay." He didn't sound that enthusiastic.

She blinked. "Don't be happy or anything."

"I – sorry."

"You want to get out of here, right?"

Beat met her eyes and said, "I want it more than anything I've ever wanted before in my life."

Desperation in his face. 

"But if I start hoping, and you fail, I may become suicidal. So it's easier to act like this." 

What the hell have they done to you? Gum wanted to scream. Why have they hurt you, why have they made you so miserable?

But she kept her mouth shut.

"You'd better take me back," Beat said. "We've been too long already. Then – then just walk out."

"All right." Gum heard her voice grow husky.

"And don't cry, okay? I don't think you'll be able to convince the other guards you stubbed your toe."

Gum stood up, rubbed the tears off her face. "Okay. I'm not crying. I'm calm. Let's get moving. Um – can you tell me which way to go?"

With Beat hissing directions in her ear, they finally got back to the correct cell. She uncuffed him, unlocked the door, and watched him walk inside. 

Why couldn't she just walk out with him? She didn't want him to be in here for another minute!

"Lock it," Beat hissed. "Come on…"

Gum heard footsteps, coming closer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw two guards marching along the corridor.

Oh shit…

She couldn't find the right key. Her fingers were fumbling, not listening to her brain. Beat looked desperately at her for a moment, then as the guards drew nearer he slumped back down on the bed, putting the sullen face on over his features. 

"Is there a problem?" one of the guards asked.

"No," Gum said. "No, thank you."

She glanced at both of them, trying to look competent, and then she realised. One of them was the one who'd brought her up to her cell.

Rats.

Maybe she wouldn't recognise her. 

Maybe.

Which key? She'd tried this one, hadn't she? Or had she? Beat was watching her out of the corner of his eye, but she knew the guards were too close for him to risk trying to help her.

They were walking on…

Keep looking…

They'd stopped walking. 

Gum felt sweat oozing over her skin, under the shirt.

Then suddenly Beat's voice shattered the air.

"Gum! _Run!"_

And automatically, she did so.

As she dashed down the corridor, she heard them start to give chase. Had to get down the stairs, had to get out, she hurried down the steps, trying not to trip – the shoes were too big, they flapped at the heels, she scrunched her toes up to try and keep them on, she'd got to the first floor, one more flight and she'd at least be at ground level, here it was, run, run – 

– she missed a step – 

And landed on the ground, sending jarring waves up her bones, but she tried to ignore that. Back in the police station now, that was good, but she could hear shouting behind her, they'd caught up, more voices, other people knew who she was…

They'd expect her to head for the exit.

She dashed down a corridor on her left, saw the main desk up ahead, that wouldn't work, there was a door next to her, she wrenched at it and charged inside. It was an office, and she ducked under the desk and tried to stop gasping for breath.

Footsteps outside the door. 

The desk had a wooden panel across the front, to hide the legs of the person sitting at it. At the moment it was doing a pretty good job of hiding Gum. But if they looked…she'd be toast, she'd be cornered, she'd be a rat in a trap.

The footsteps passed the door. Gum slowly let out her breath. Okay. Now she just had to think of a way out of here that didn't involve going past any member of the police force.

She rose up from behind the desk, and glanced round the room. There was a window on the back wall. A possibility…kinda high though.

She glanced at the door. There was writing printed on the glass panel set in it:

__

amihsinO feihC eciloP

And then underneath:

__

ETAVIRP

Gum slowly reversed the letters in her brain, and gulped.

"Oh, shit. This is not a good place for a rudie to be."

***

Cube knelt on the floor, shivering. She knew she should get dressed, but she couldn't be bothered. It felt like her head had been filled with smoke.

Saburo had gone. 

He'd kissed her on the forehead before he left, and said, "Don't tell Garam. There's no sense in breaking up the group."

No. If Garam found out he'd be furious. 

Really furious.

Furious enough to hurt.

To do some talking to the cops. 

To send her down.

"No," Cube said, hearing her voice echo in the empty HQ. "No, he won't. He won't."

Get dressed and then you won't have to find out, her mind snapped.

Quickly she grabbed her clothes, and shoved them on, her fingers catching on the folds in the cloth. Last of all was her black T-shirt with the skull on the front of it.

She stroked it, and remembered…

_"Well done. You're in." Saburo looked round the room. There were bullet holes all over the wall._

"Really? I mean, cool." Cube flicked back her hair and tried not to look at what she'd just done.

"Here." He handed her a folded black garment. "This is your Skull shirt. Wear it all the time, but keep it hidden. Now we'd better get moving."

Cube took the shirt and followed Saburo to the door. 

This was so sweet. They could never get Beat back, but this was a way of revenge. Stupid rudies? I don't think so. Cube smirked, suddenly feeling exhilaration break out all over her skin. I did it. I did it. I'm in the Skulls.

I love my life.

"What a dweeb you were," Cube said out loud. She stared down at the skull, which was blue-tinted in the darkness of the room. "Now you've fucked up your head and you've fucked up your relationship. Garam will kill you when he finds out."

She swallowed, and stood up.

"But he won't. I'll just keep it quiet. And he won't have to know, and he'll look after me, and everything will be okay."

She picked up her gun, and started dismantling it. That was a task she could do, a reassuring thing, click of the pieces as she found them where they were supposed to be.

"I wish Combo was here," she heard herself say.

"No, you do _not!" _she yelled. "He hates your guts. And you hate him. He hates you, do you hear me, he hates you." 

"But he's nice to me."

Cube felt the view rock with rage. She grabbed a sharp edge from the pieces in front of her, and dug it into the fleshy part of her hand. The blood ran down her skin, shining beads of crimson, beautiful, and it hurt enough to stop her thinking about…well, about.

What if Mew told?

But Mew knew she was in the Skulls anyway. 

But Mew was an actual witness to an actual attempted murder.

But she hadn't actually killed anyone.

Footsteps, and she turned. Saburo and Garam were coming towards her.

"Hey, guys," she managed to say.

Garam smiled, slightly. Saburo didn't.

"Right," he said. "Okay, the Miyamoto attack failed. They'll be warned now, they might leave the city, if they do we'll forget them. If they don't we'll go back and settle it later. But this girl you saw, Cube…"

"What about her?"

"She wasn't a member of the family, was she?"

"No."

"So it's highly unlikely she'll leave if they do. We may have to put her out of the picture."

Cube dropped the piece of metal she was holding. "Saburo, I can't."

"I'll do it, don't worry." He glared at her, and Cube felt like crying and then felt like slapping herself. What was wrong with her? Why was she going to pieces like this?

"We'll just keep an eye on her, all right? Her and the Miyamoto boy. See what happens."

Garam nodded.

"How did yours go?" Saburo asked.

Garam shrugged. "Fine."

I used to be happy to hear that, Cube thought. I used to be proud of him. Now I'm not anything.

What's happening to me?

As Saburo strolled over to the other side of the room, Garam crept over to Cube. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"About what?"

"About getting mad with you. This was our choice, and it ain't fair of me to beat on you for it."

"Thanks," Cube said. Garam hugged her, kissed her. It felt, dimly, quite nice. But nothing more.

Saburo hadn't felt nice. Saburo had felt rushed, pushy, like he was making her give him something that wasn't ready – that she hadn't prepared – something she wanted to be nice that wasn't. 

Garam was still kissing her, and she felt his hands reach up under her shirt.

"Stop it," she said.

"Cube?"

He looked so hurt.

"I don't feel like it today," she said. "Sorry. I'm kinda stressed. I think I've got PMT."

Garam sighed. "Okay, then, honey. You want to…well, just hang out?"

That sounded nice.

Bullet holes…

Mew…

Skulls…

Saburo…

"No thanks. I'm feeling…kinda bad. You go out for a bit. I'll sleep."

"You sure you don't want me to stay with you?"

Cube shook her head. "I'd just like to sleep."

Garam shrugged, sauntered over to his bunk, and picked up a black jacket. He slipped it on, zipping it up so it hid the skull on his chest, and said, "I'll see you later, then. I hope you feel better."

Cube nodded, and watched him walk out.

The door shut.

"PMT? Nice one, Cube."

Saburo.

She shrugged, and then jumped as his fingers brushed her shoulder blades. 

"You've got a lovely bone structure. Did anyone ever tell you that?"

Cube laughed, feeling the sound stick in her mouth. "Appropriate for a Skull."

"He'll be out some time," Saburo said, his voice lower.

"Yes."

"You may as well. Where's the harm?"

"Now?"

"It's good exercise. Keeps you in trim. That's important, for a Skull."

But it's cheating.

You shoot people's kneecaps off and you're worried about cheating on your boyfriend?

Oh, what's right any more?

Cube lay down on the bunk. "Fine."

Maybe this time it'll feel like it's the best thing to do.

***

Mew watched Mrs Miyamoto. The colour was running out of her face like rain.

"A Skull came here," she said. "A Skull came here and tried to shoot you?"

"She didn't, though, Mum," Isas said. "Look, I'm fine, Me – Miyako's fine, you're fine, Dad's fine."

"I'm not staying here another minute," Mrs Miyamoto said. "They know where we live."

"Mum, stop worrying…"

"Do you remember the Toriyamas?"

"Didn't we go to their house once? Their son let me play on his Dreamcast…"

"Yes, that's it. Now they are dead, Isas. All of them. Someone broke in and shot them. Your father worked with Mr Toriyama. We are getting out of this city."

She dashed out of the kitchen, and Mew heard her running upstairs.

"You're moving out?" she said.

"I guess we're gonna have to."

"I'll miss you." Mew stared at a pool of pineapple juice on the floor.

"Thanks. I'll miss you."

Footsteps, coming downstairs now, and Isas's mother dashed back in, accompanied by her husband, who was wearing pyjamas, dressing gown, and an expression of fury.

"Isas," he said. "Did you see anything?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Skull. What did she look like?"

Mew swallowed as Isas began to describe Cube. Shut up, she wanted to say. That's my friend you're talking about, you're not turning her in.

"And Miyako knew her –" Isas stopped.

Mew swallowed as Mr Miyamoto turned to look at her. 

I don't know you, she thought. Maybe you fired tear gas at me from behind riot gear, maybe you tried to crack my skull with your truncheon. Maybe you saw me crying. 

"How did you know her?" he asked. "Do you know who she is?"

"Isas is wrong," Mew said. "I don't know her."

"But, Mew –"

"I said I don't know her."

"Right." Mr Miyamoto breathed a deep sigh. "Okay. We're out of here."

Isas's parents walked out of the room.

"Mew, how could you do that?" Isas yelled as the door shut. 

"She's a rudie and I don't turn in rudies."

"She tried to kill us both."

I know, Mew thought. If she hadn't recognised me she'd have shot us. You think I don't find that hard enough to take in? 

"Listen," she snapped. "I'm a rudie. And rudies don't turn in their friends, and rudies don't help cops."

"Then rudies are stupid."

"What would you know about it, schoolboy?"

"At least I don't think dropping out of school is intelligent!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Isas's eyes narrowed. "Suki's right. You lot think you're all so great, just because you break rules. Well, I've got news for you, _Mew. _You're not great. You're a bunch of idiots who let themselves get upset over every little thing."

Mew felt very cold. Her brain seemed emptied of thought, except for those words, scrawled across her mind's eye.

"Fuck you, Miyamoto Isas!" she screamed. "You and your sad little posters of tags you can't paint, drawn by people who are worth a million of you! You're nothing but a Keisatsu's child and that's all you'll ever be!"

And then she ran, out of the warm yellow house, slamming the door behind her, and down the Kogane street, the dust staining her shoes.


	6. Conflicts

Chapter Six – Conflict

Gum let out her breath, slowly, nervously. Okay. So she was in Onishima's office. So the entire building was searching for her. So she was in trouble.

She still lived, right?

And if she was in Onishima's office, she may as well look around…

Carefully she wriggled out from under the desk and began leafing through the papers on top of it. There were layers of them, many marked with rings of coffee. Letters from the public. Invoices for new building work. Documents of arrest for people she didn't know. Nothing surprising.

Suddenly she heard footsteps marching down towards the office, and dived under the desk again. The door flew open and hit the wall, and someone stamped inside.

Gum tried not to breathe.

The person was ruffling through the papers, then she heard a familiar mutter of "Damn," and Onishima pulled open one of the desk drawers. She saw him reach inside, take something out, start leafing through it. He laughed, short, sharp, like gurgling water.

Gum was starting to itch. She told herself to _stay still._

Suddenly another pair of footsteps hurried towards the office.

"Captain Onishima, sir, that virus just wiped the hard drive, and I think it sent five hundred thousand kilobytes of world leader hentai to the Mayor of Tokyo."

Gum gritted her teeth, pressed her lips together, and tried to think very hard about nuclear war to stop a giggle escaping.

"Damn Noise Tanks…" She heard a chair scrape back. "Damn rudies…okay, I'm coming, but tell the technicians, okay? I'm no computer-freak…"

She heard him march out of the office, slamming the door behind him – and she heard him lock it.

Gum gulped. Oh, well, looked like it was the window or nothing. She crawled out from under the desk.

On top of the paperwork was a notebook, the pages of which were covered in scribbly black handwriting. Gum flipped to the front cover. Scrawled across it were the words 'Property of Police Chief Onishima. DO NOT TOUCH.'

Gum smiled, picked the notebook up, and shoved it down the front of her shirt.

Then she pushed Onishima's chair over to the far wall, stood on it, and eased the window open.

Now to start climbing.

She pushed down on the windowsill until her muscles throbbed, and shoved herself up over it. Swinging her legs round, she dropped to the ground outside the police station.

Move it.

She hurried into the Shibuya backstreets, humming under her breath.

"I am a rudie, that's what I am…I am a rudie, I had the master plan…I am a rudie, that's what I am…I am a rudie, I had the master plan!"

***

Past Gum, Tab and Yo-Yo had been thinking for the last half-hour, and hadn't yet come up with any ideas.

"See?" Yo-Yo snapped. "We thought all this out five years ago. What's the point in doing it again?"

"Don't start all that complaining," Gum said.

"I'm entitled to complain. You guys beetled off and left me all alone, I have a right to be gloomy about that."

"We're here now, aren't we?" Tab said. 

Yo-Yo shrugged. "Yeah, well, but I still haven't forgiven you."

Gum wondered whether he'd forgive her shaking him till his teeth rattled.

Suddenly she heard the garage door open, and a voice called, "Yo-Yo, I'm ba – ack!"

A very familiar voice.

Gum swallowed, and turned round.

"Oh, wow," Tab murmured from behind her. "Freaky."

Gum tried to shake the conviction that she was just looking into a mirror. It didn't work. This couldn't be her, she was her, so who was this…

"What – the – hell – is going – on?" 

Future Gum sounded either really furious or really frightened.

"Tab, you explain," Gum said. "I think she'll take it better coming from you."

Tab quickly ran through the day's events. As he did so, Gum stared at her future self, trying to make her mind believe what her eyes were seeing. 

She would grow her hair longer – Future Gum's reached to halfway down her back. And she would look angrier. Tenser. 

And for some reason, she'd be wearing a prison guard's uniform.

Tab finished explaining, and they waited.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Future Gum said.

"Or maybe she won't take it at all," Gum said.

"Listen," Future Gum snarled, marching over to her double. "I don't know who you are, or what you're doing here, but I'm telling you right now, get out of this garage!"

"I'm a GG. I'm entitled."

"You are not a GG. There's only one GG who looks like you, and that's me!"

"If I'm not a past you, who am I?" Gum tried not to yell. This was wasting time…

"You can't be a past me because if you were, I'd remember time-travelling at…however old you are. And I don't. So you're someone with a very good plastic surgeon. Or my long-lost twin sister."

"She's actually got a point," Yo-Yo said. "If Gum time-travelled at seventeen, why doesn't she remember it when she's twenty-two?"

"You did fall and hit your head, right?" Gum said. "The night Beat disappeared?"

"Yeah. How did you –"

"Because I'm you, idiot!"

"Don't call me an idiot, _faker!"_

"Faker? At least I don't go around with mud on my face and a cop's uniform on!" Gum snapped.

Future Gum glowered. "I have just sprung myself out of jail. Something I doubt you could do."

"Oh, really? Why?"

"Because you're not me!"

Do I really look that vicious when I'm angry? Gum wondered. Or is it something I'm gonna develop in the next five years?

If I ever get back, of course. 

"I'm not you. I'm you five years ago. For heaven's sake, just accept it and then we can get on with things!"

"We? You're not part of our gang."

"I am."

"You're not."

"I am!"

"You're not!"

"Girls, girls, please!" Tab dashed between the two Gums. "Ummm…Future Gum…you were saying you hit your head?"

"Yes. But I was just knocked out for an hour or so. And shouldn't I be Present Gum? This is _my_ time zone."

"Well, maybe when I go back I won't remember any of this," Gum said. "That's why none of it will have been changed. And then my GGs will turn into your GGs and we'll all end up miserable, and then another Gum will come into my present and we'll have this argument and then –"

"Stop!" Yo-Yo yelled. "That's too many Gums for me to cope with!"

Future Gum glanced at him, and they both blushed.

"Yo-Yo," she said, "Do you believe this time-travel stuff?"

"I didn't, but…look, we could sort out the situation we're in now. Gum could find Beat so that he wouldn't have to get caught, and then…well, you see what I mean?"

Future Gum bit her lip. "I guess that would be cool. I saw him, and –"

"What? In jail?" Yo-Yo asked.

"Yeah. Got to talk to him."

"And?" Tab didn't look at her, glanced out of the window, the afternoon sunlight shadowing his features.

"Well, he says he's okay. Said to tell you all he's alive. But –" She closed her eyes for a second, then spoke, throwing down the words: "We've got to get him out of there. They're hurting him and he's pretending he can handle it but he can't. Five years, five damn years…"

She turned, quickly, and faced Gum. "Okay. Fine. I'll believe you. If you can get him out, I'll believe anything you say."

"Hang on, though," Yo-Yo said. "If you don't remember time-travelling when you were seventeen, who says she'll –" He indicated Gum. "– be able to do anything? If she don't remember, she'll just do what she was going to do anyway, and that'll be to go back to the garage, and that'll get Beat caught, and that'll be that."

"How did it happen, anyway?" Future Gum said. "Come on, Tab, you're the hi-tech Benten crazy around here. How'd she do it?"

Tab didn't answer. He was still gazing out of the window. Future Gum poked him in the back.

"Huh?"

"How'd she time-travel?"

"I don't know."

Gum saw her future self and Yo-Yo glance at each other. 

"Tab?" Future Gum said more gently. "We can finish this conversation later, if you want. We've got all the time in the world…"

"No. No, I'm fine." Tab turned to face them again, his face blank. "How'd she do it? I don't know. It's possible, but unless there's a wormhole in Center Street – which I doubt – I don't see how she could have done it."

"It's possible?" Gum said.

"Well, if it isn't, you're not me," Future Gum said, "and I have to start arguing with you again."

"Yes, it's possible," Tab said. "You see, space and time aren't separate, but instead form one thingy called space-time. You can rotate a, like, majorly dense object and it'll drag space-time round, and you think you're walking through space but you're actually walking through time…"

"Yeah…" the other three GGs said.

"Or there's wormholes, which are pairs of black holes, and if you go through one black hole and come out in another you can come out in a different time."

"You've been reading too many books with big words in them again," Future Gum said. "This don't seem to fit our situation. You didn't go past any rotating objects or walk into a black hole, did you?" she said, glancing at Gum, who shook her head. "So how'd it happen?"

"Maybe it's all a dream," Yo-Yo said. "You know, a confused hallucination brought on by the blow on the head."

"In which case, buddy, you're a figment of my imagination," Gum said. "If I stop thinking about you you'll vanish. So be nice to me."

"If we don't know how she did it, she can't get back," Tab said. "I think."

"I don't want to be stuck here," Gum said, speaking calmly in the hope that she could pretend she hadn't heard what he'd said. "I really don't."

"You have to have got back," Future Gum said. "Or I wouldn't be here."

"Then let's just assume she does get back, and stop worrying about it," Yo-Yo said. "Past Gum, if you get back, tell Beat…uh…what should she tell Beat, Future Gum?"

"Go home, don't stay out all night, and repair that crack in your skate," Future Gum said. "That should do it. If you get back far enough, tell him not to go to that meeting with the Love Shocker either. But look, I don't think we should rely on you getting back. We should try and get him out ourselves."

"Okay," Tab said. "You talked to him. Any ideas?"

They discussed it for the rest of the day, and finally stopped as the sun started to set.

"Tab, you staying here tonight?" Future Gum asked.

"I don't know. You're not gonna do anything without me, are you?"

"No, we can wait for you."

"Okay." Tab put his mask back on. "I'll head back to Benten. See you tomorrow."

Gum watched as he headed out into the street and skated away, the orange light coating his white uniform. He moved slowly, seem to go through the motions of skating without needing to think about it. It was weird to see him going away, to know that he wasn't one of them any more.

"Why's he so gloomy?" she asked.

"You don't know?" Future Gum said. "No – of course you don't, he hasn't told you."

"What?"

"I'd better keep my mouth shut. Wouldn't want to muck up the fabric of reality, now would I?"

Gum glowered as her future self sauntered away. He's my friend too, she muttered in her mind. Not just yours, mine. Stop treating me like a kid.

But you are a kid, to them. Only seventeen, even Yo-Yo's older than you now. They've all grown up, and left you behind. 

The sofa was covered with beer cans, paint and magazines. Gum swept it all off, enjoying the clatters and thumps that resulted, and sat down. Flicking on the TV, she leant back against the chair, and scowled.

***

Future Gum started pulling off the guard's clothes, which had been itching at her for the past hour. She threw them into a heap on the floor, dropped Onishima's notebook on top of them, and then stood in her underwear, and breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Freedom! Geez, how they can wear those things day in day out…"

"I thought you looked pretty hot in it."

Gum yelped and threw her arms across her chest. "Yo-Yo, go away!"

He walked out of the shadows. "What? It's not like I haven't seen you like that before."

Gum glared at him. "You could have asked or coughed or something. Let me know you were there."

"Now, where would be the fun in that?"

Gum stormed over to the cupboard, and pulled out her spare clothes. "Look," she said, pulling on her black jeans. "About…well, about that night."

"Yeah. About that night."

"What…what was it?"

"You should read more biology textbooks."

"Ha ha. I mean, was it a fling? A one-night stand? Or did you, did you…"

"Mean it?"

"Yeah, I guess." Gum wriggled into her black top, then picked up a hairbrush. Tipping back her head, she started to brush her hair, sharply, exterminating the tangles. 

"Dunno."

"It's just, well, I don't really want anything…serious."

"Why not? Thought all girls were gagging for commitment."

"No. I need all my wits about me at the moment, especially…especially now things have changed."

"Mmm. So…that's it, then?"

"Yes."

No, her thoughts whispered. Shut up, she told them.

"Yes, I think we'd better forget it. I mean, we know it would never've happened if we hadn't been on our own."

"Yeah." Yo-Yo stared at his skates. "Well, I'm cool with that. Only wanted a bit of a thrill."

"Oh. Okay." So you didn't mean what you said? When you stroked my hair and everything, and told me you'd die for me? Well, of course you didn't. You're a guy, and you're Yo-Yo.

"I'll see you around, okay?" Yo-Yo shrugged, and walked out of the room.

"Yeah."

Gum picked up an eyebrow pencil and started redrawing the tag on her cheek. 

That's good, she thought. He doesn't want a committed relationship any more than you do. That's very good. Who needs a boyfriend? Much better to be on your own. Own thoughts. Own life. No sex when you don't want to, no put-downs, no sharing a bed with someone who snores. 

Why then did she have this odd, dying feeling between her ribs, like a trapped flame or a sob made physical?

Because you're stupid, and sex-starved, and tired after a long day, she answered herself. Go buy a vibrator, and have a sleep. 

And don't, whatever you do, start crying.

***

Past Gum was channel-hopping when Yo-Yo flopped down next to her, making the sofa sink.

"Hi," she said. He didn't answer. On the screen, someone was trying to win a car.

"What's with you?" she asked at last. 

"Nothing. What's with you?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, come on. You've got a face on you like a rabid werewolf."

"Thanks a bunch," Gum said. "Well, it is a little difficult to find all my friends have gained five years on me, and that they're scattered to the four corners of the globe. You know, it pisses me off a little."

"I guess it must be tough."

Gum glanced at him. He was staring at the TV, his profile outlined by the glowing screen, where someone was trying to remember who'd won the World Cup in 1966.

"What's wrong with you, anyway?" she said.

"Nothing."

Suddenly he turned to face her, grabbed her shoulders, and kissed her.

Holy _shit! _was Gum's first thought as his tongue caressed hers. She was beginning to tremble, heat rushing over her skin through her chest down to her feet…

They broke away, stared at each other. Gum could feel sweat on her face, cool and damp.

On the TV, the time ran out, and a siren sounded.

She leaned forward, and kissed him again, gripping his back, feeling him warm and muscular under his clothes. His hands brushed her chin, and then her helmet was off, and her hair loose, and he was stroking it, and his hands under her dress, fingers on her collarbone, down, stroking her ribs, her shoulders were bare now, he smelt of beer and paint and heat, and she was scared, her body felt so crazy…

Then he stopped.

Moved away.

Gum wriggled up. "What – what's wrong?"

"I shouldn't have done that."

"Why not?"

"It's taking advantage of you."

"Look, I'm only a year younger, and I'm no angel!"

"I just can't, okay?" He got to his feet. "Sorry."

"Whatever." Gum glowered as he walked out. She felt childishly angry. It's not fair. That had felt so great and now he'd taken it away.

She felt herself tear up, and blinked, then turned back to the TV. The closing credits were rolling.

***

Beat lay in the dark, trying not to think.

It wasn't like it wasn't good dreaming about escape, about freedom, about being happy again. He did that every night.

It was just that this time it might actually happen, that he might have a chance of having what he yearned for. 

And thinking about that – about what could be – was just dangerous. 

If it did happen, all well and good – he quickly dragged his mind away from how good it would be.

But if it didn't, if he just went on waiting and waiting and nothing ever happened, or worse, if he saw them get caught as well, then…he felt despair break over him like a icy black wave, and shivered. He was scared of that despair. It could sweep him underwater and drown him. 

You saw the ones in here it had already happened to. Not just the ones who cried or screamed at night. The ones who'd gone past that, who now just sat, frozen-faced, not listening, not answering, the zombies.

And the ones who'd gone past _that…_the ones you never saw because they'd smuggled in a knife, or torn up their sheet and put one end round their neck and let themselves drop, or the ones who managed to get hold of bad stuff and burn out their insides…

And sometimes it seemed so easy to join them.

And he wasn't going to. He wasn't. 

__

So easy…

He gripped his arm again, deliberately angling fingers to press down on the bruised bone, and the pain rose up like a sudden fire, and burnt out the thought for a few moments.

Keep going another minute, he hissed to himself. Keep going and you'll be all right.

There was a rattling at the door.

Beat lay completely flat, and tried not to panic.

The door opened, and faint blue light spilled into the cell. Part of the remaining shadow spat out a figure, which marched forward and pulled him to his feet.

"Get up. The captain wants to see you."

You'll be okay, Beat told his thoughts, which were starting to shiver. You've put up with this before. You'll be okay, you'll be okay…

I really, _really _want to go home…

Outside it was dark, the lights on the wall dimmed to ice-colour. The air was ice-texture as well, biting his fingers and feet. And the shadows were too black, black enough to fall into…

I need more sleep, Beat told himself.

Soon they'd reached the ground floor, which was almost completely black. And there was Onishima's office door, the letters silhouetted against the lit glass like ash against a bonfire.

The guard pushed him into the room. It was only a little warmer here. The desk lamp glowed, too bright, and he squeezed his eyes shut a moment. When he opened them, he saw Onishima sitting at the desk, looking even more manically furious than normal. With him were the two guards who'd chased Gum earlier that day.

I've got a bad feeling about this, Beat's brain murmured.

The guard who'd brought him shoved him down into the chair facing Onishima, then stepped back. Beat waited. Everyone was silent.

Then Onishima leapt up, slammed his fist down on the table, and roared, "Where the hell did that rudie whore go with my notebook?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Beat said. For once he actually meant it. Presumably Gum had pissed Onishima off, but what was this about a notebook?

"Don't play dumb with me!" The veins were bulging out on Onishima's neck. "You tell me where she is or you'll wish you'd never been born!"

"I don't know where she is," Beat said, trying to keep his voice steady. "I didn't see where she ran to, did I?"

"You knew her."

"Prove it."

"I'm told by a reliable source…" Onishima gestured to the guards behind him. "I'm told you knew her, spoke to her by name."

"They heard wrong."

Onishima marched round from behind his desk and came to stand next to Beat. "Don't lie to me, rudie scum. You knew her. You have at least an idea of where she's heading, and I suggest you speak up."

"I don't know anything."

Onishima gripped Beat's arm, right where it ached. Beat gritted his teeth and tried not to think about the agony shooting up his bones. 

"So you don't know her, do you?" 

"No…"

He squeezed his eyes shut to stop the tears of pain escaping, and tried not to cry out. Just keep silent and you'll be okay…

"So why did you call out to her?"

"I – I didn't. I didn't."

He felt himself growing dizzy, and just as he knew he was going to cry out, Onishima let go of him. Beat slumped back in the chair, breathing slowly, trying to think up a new variation on the 'I don't know,' phrase. 

"Don't even bother lying," Onishima spat out, eyes blazing. "I know you did it. I know you knew her. I am going to track her down and I am going to make her suffer. Do you hear me? What's happened to you is nothing – _nothing – _to what I'm going to do to her and the rest of her friends."

"You touch them and I'll kill you –"

The sentence was torn from him before he could think, and he cursed silently as a crumpled smile crept over Onishima's face. 

"So they do matter to you, do they?"

Oh, well done, his mind snapped. The first time you actually let him get to you and you totally blow it. Oh, great. Just great.

"Yeah," he said. "Which is why I've got nothing to say to you."

He felt Onishima grip his arm again – the pain rose – and then Onishima twisted it, and Beat heard himself scream.

"You don't talk that way to me, rudie," Onishima growled, voice thick with fury. "You tell me everything you know. And you do it now."

Beat wanted to speak, tell Onishima where to shove his threats, but he couldn't, it hurt too much, he couldn't bear it, he couldn't, and his voice leapt free and yelled, "They're gone, there's only two left…"

"Really?" Onishima let go of him. Beat's ears ached from the relief. 

"No," he said, hardly able to see at all now, "No, I won't do it…"

And the agony returned, rose, through the black holes opening in his vision he saw Onishima raise a fist – 

_Snap_

"Get talking."

Onishima's voice seemed very far away.

"No…"

A blow across the head…then someone smacked him in the mouth. He tasted blood.

This happened before all right…and he couldn't take it any more…stop it, stop it, leave me alone, did he say that out loud? Who knew, who cared…if he just spoke, maybe he'd be able to get out of here, out of this life, out of the pain boiling around him. It had to be better than this, had to be…

"They…they live on Lake Street…in the garage…"

***

Tab skated into the walkway area. It was a warm night, and he peeled off his mask. 

He walked up the steps, jumped onto the banister, ground, leapt, did a Method, landed on the next set of banisters. The air rushed over his skin. As he leapt again, he saw the lights around him, glowing, little flickers of fire, and he felt oddly happy.

He hadn't felt like this for months. He could kid himself it was the beauty of Benten-cho at night, but he knew it wasn't that really. It was that at long last they had some hope.

He had some hope.

It's dangerous to hope. You might jinx it.

But tonight he could just…well, just enjoy the possibility…it might work…they might get him out of there…he might see him again…it could all be like it used to. 

"We're gonna do it," he said to the sky. "We're really gonna do it. Beat, you better get your glad rags on. Cos the GGs are coming home!"


	7. Partners

Chapter Seven – Partners

(Hope this comes through all right – my computer was being a little weird. Anyway, thank you to everyone who's been r+ring!

BansheeCat, I'm sorry you don't like Beat (you philistine!) but then, I'm not that keen on Yo-Yo (although I've never seen the JSR Yoyo, so we may be thinking of completely different people). I hope you don't mind r+ring all the same!)

Mew stepped onto the bus. It was going to be another hot day. She was already starting to sweat under her uniform.

She looked round, and saw Isas. Isas sitting with Suki.

Tears burnt her eyes.

Stop it, she told herself. He's a cop's kid, you're – you were – a rudie. This is for the best.

She sat down on the last spare seat, and stared out of the window as the bus rattled away from the kerb. 

Isas and Suki were a little way behind her. She could hear them whispering, their voices echoing in the thick, stuffy air.

I don't care, she told herself. I don't, I don't.

I want to scratch his eyes out.

I want him to like me.

I think I'm going crazy.

Suddenly she saw one of Suki's friends get up and walk past her, catching her on the head with her bag. Mew turned, and saw the girl whispering to Suki.

The driver screeched to a halt and yelled at her to sit back down again. She did so, rolling her eyes, and started whispering to the girl she was sitting next to.

Mew swallowed. They're not talking about you, she told herself. Why would they be? No one is noticing you.

She could see half the bus whispering now.

She opened her bag, and started searching for her maths book. Maybe if she read something, she'd be able to ignore all this.

She heard a snort of laughter, and spun round automatically. 

No one was looking at her.

Stop it, she told herself. Stop being so damn paranoid. She returned to her books –

There was a folded piece of paper on top of them.

She opened it out, and gasped.

It had been scribbled, biro pressing deep.

__

We don't like you, rudie. You tried to kill Isas. Get out of our school.

Underneath someone had drawn a hangman figure, head lolling from a one-line rope.

Mew crumpled up the paper, but that didn't help. So she uncrumpled it again, folded it up, and began to rip it in two, ignoring the stares of the other pupils. I hate you, Miyamoto Isas, she thought. I hate you, I hate you, how dare you tell them all this?

And what are they going to do with me?

She flung the pieces onto the bus floor, and saw the stick figure staring up at her, its limbs slack, its neck snapped – 

Don't get scared. Get angry.

Isas told them _I _tried to hurt him? The fury bubbled, faintly, in her stomach. 

Some friend he was!

She was sick of this. 

Mew got to her feet and stormed towards Isas.

"How dare you tell them I tried to kill you?" she screamed.

Isas jumped, then narrowed his eyes. "Go back to the ghetto, rudie."

"Don't try and avoid it," Mew shouted, clinging to the seat as the bus turned a corner. "You can't take it that I didn't want to turn in one of my friends? You could at least stick to the truth! You have no right to make up stuff about me!"

"I don't know what you're on about," Isas said, sliding down in his seat a little. "Just get a life and stay out of mine." 

"Yeah, Miyako," Suki said. "Leave Isas alone. He's told me all about what you did."

"How dare you?" The view rocked as the anger swirled round Mew's eyes. "You – you Keisatsu pig, you're no better than your bastard father!"

Isas turned to face her, his eyes blazing. "Shut up!" he yelled. "Shut up! Shut up! I didn't tell anyone any lies, all I said was you were still a rudie supporter and cop hater and you damn well are!"

The bus screeched to a halt, and the driver came storming up the aisle. "Off," he said, glaring at Mew and Isas. "Now."

"But –"

Isas stopped speaking, picked up his bag, and shoved past Mew. "Dumb rudie," he muttered.

"Dumb Keisatsu," Mew retorted, following him off the bus.

They stood on the kerb and the bus roared away, sprinkling them both with dust. 

***

Garam stood in the shadows with Saburo, watching as the two kids stumbled off the bus. 

"They the ones?" he whispered.

Saburo lowered the binoculars. "Yep. Go in and do your stuff. He's a cop's kid and she's a witness."

Garam hefted the sniper rifle and tapped the button on the side of the scope. It zoomed in on the girl's face –

a victim's face –

a familiar face – 

Mew's face.

"So that's why Cube didn't ice the Miyamotos," he said, slowly, the rage building inside his chest.

"What was that?"

"Here." Garam flung the rifle into Saburo's arms, then pulled off his Skull T-shirt. "You can keep your stuff. I quit."

"What about Cube?"

"She can do what she wants. I've had it with this."

"Garam, it's one girl, she's not your friend any more –"

"I don't kill people I know, and I shouldn't have killed anyone!" Garam yelled. He pulled off his sunglasses, and crunched them underfoot. He was shaking all over, but yet he wasn't scared. Suddenly it was obvious what to do.

"Garam, you're crazy."

"No." Garam squinted in the sunlight. "I _was _crazy. Now I'm sane again." He reached into his backpack and pulled out his fly-eye goggles. 

"You can't just leave. What about Cube?"

"Tell her what happened," Garam said. "Tell her she can get out of this. Tell her to meet me in the factory yard, by the relay tower, tonight, ten p.m. Tell her she doesn't have to be like you."

"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Saburo's voice was icy quiet.

"Because I'm not going back to the HQ. I don't trust you."

"You're right not to. Garam, Skulls are honour bound to assassinate those who defect."

"Then kill me," Garam retorted. He shoved his goggles on. "It'd still be better than being one of you."

***

Saburo didn't look at Garam, instead turning to stare at Mew and Isas. They stood, side by side, their shadows stretching out behind them.

He raised his gun, his own shadow lengthening.

Suddenly he felt something dig into the back of his neck.

"Don't even try it," Garam said, and fired the stun gun.

Saburo yelped as he felt electricity race down his spine, and then – mercifully – his consciousness cut out.

***

Mew picked up her bag and started to walk. 

"Miyako…" Isas called.

She turned.

"I didn't tell them any lies."

She shrugged. "All right."

"We're leaving tomorrow."

"All right." Mew was glad she was facing away from him. It meant he couldn't see her blink too hard, or bite her lip.

"Bye, Miyako."

"Bye."

***

Beat heard the door rattle open, and forced himself to wake up. 

"Get ready," the guard said. "You're being moved."

"Huh?"

"Grow a brain, rudie. You finally decided to be sensible last night, so you're going to go live out the rest of your sentence away from the station. Now move it."

Last night…

Beat looked down at his arm, which was in a sling. Of course. He'd cracked and told them everything.

Like where the garage was.

Like where all the GGs were.

No.

"What time is it?" he said.

"It's seven a.m. Now move it or you'll get your other arm broken."

Seven a.m. Surely they hadn't done anything yet…

Come on, Beat thought. Onishima'll want to act on it all as soon as possible, he's probably got them all by now.

But there's got to be something I can do, there's got to. He closed his eyes a moment, tried to hold down the panic forcing its way up his throat.

Maybe he hasn't got them yet…

He started to get ready, awkwardly, one-handed, trying to remember exactly what he'd given away. Thinking about last night at all was an ordeal, but he tried to ignore the humiliation and focus on what he'd actually said.

The garage. He'd told them where the garage was. Which meant Gum and Yo-Yo were in trouble. What else? He'd mentioned Mew, and they knew where she was already so she was out of it.

Think. Think.

Yes…Onishima had known there were ten of them…he'd made sure he'd got all the names. Piranha and Slate…Beat had told him they'd left. That they had a child. But that was all he knew, wasn't it? There wasn't anything else he could say. They had to be okay. 

Combo was in Grind City. Well, that was all he knew, and so that would be all Onishima knew.

And Cube and Garam in the Skulls? If they got caught, being rudies would be the last thing on anyone's mind. Beat had seen the guards' faces flicker with rage at the mention of the Skulls, and Onishima had gripped his broken arm, fury in his fingers…

Tab. What the hell had he said about Tab? He had to have said something. That the guy had joined the Noise Tanks? Well, big deal. He didn't know where the Noise Tanks' base was now that a bunch of Skulls had chased them out of it. Tab was safe. He had to be safe.

But what about other things? The secret passage from Benten Square? The fact that rudies escaped down train tracks, through the half pipe, into the sewers? That they bought their skates from Shibuya Hardware Store, because the owner was sympathetic to teenage kids and sold them skates on the quiet?

He could have single-handedly screwed up the life of every rudie in Tokyo-to. 

_Had _he told about that stuff? He honestly couldn't remember. Onishima had got the fates of the other nine GGs out of him, and then – and then – asked him if there was anything else he knew, and he'd been saying no, and the pain had been so bad by now, made it hard to breathe, and then what had happened…

He followed the guard out of the cell, along the corridor.

Onishima had told him he wouldn't get any help for his arm until he did speak, and one of the guards had made like he was gonna say something…Onishima had told him to shut up…and then…then it all blurred into a mess of dimly remembered agony and a few still shots of the shadows on the walls. He had been saying something. He didn't know what.

What if Piranha and Slate were still living under their rudie names? Finding them would be easy then. He'd told Onishima those names, he remembered that.

If only he knew what had happened. If only there wasn't this horrible wondering. He could feel his mind dashing around inside his skull, grabbing up worst-case scenarios and miraculous escapes. It was tiring him out, and he kept thinking _how could you be so stupid?_

Well, in a few hours he'd be out of Tokyo-to for good. Then he could forget the GGs, forget he'd failed them, forget that they were the closest friends he'd ever had. Because he was a traitor to them. And there was nothing he could do.

***

Tab skated towards the garage, his vision green-tinted by his Noise Tank goggles. It was humid and the air wrapped around him like a blanket. He yawned. The heat always made him sleepy and usually he was glad about that. Not least because sleep helped you to stop thinking. But today he didn't want to. 

Today there was a chance. If not today, then tomorrow, if not tomorrow, the day after. Hope was good. Hope woke him up like cold water through his veins. 

He pushed open the garage door, and looked round. It was empty.

"Gum? Yo-Yo? Oh, well, must've gone out…"

He strolled over to the sofa and sat down. It was like falling into the past – for a moment. Then he felt like a guest. A guest in the place that'd been his home for, like, four years or something. How dumb was that?

And yet it was so familiar…it felt _right _being here. Coming home after a long holiday. He leant his head back against the sofa, and closed his eyes. It was safe. No surprises.

The door opened, and he sat up. "Gum? Where've you been –"

He stopped as he saw the paratrooper standing in the doorway, and then his heart rate sped through the roof as the man spoke. 

"Freeze, rudie."__

***

Cube opened her eyes. The air was thick and sweaty, dampening her skin. 

She pushed back the bedclothes, which were tangled round her body. She'd been running last night, in her dream, one of those ones where you couldn't stop. It hadn't been restful. She felt wrung out, sticky, stupid in the heat.

Suddenly the door flew open, sending a puff of cold air through the room, delicious on her hot face. Cube sat up a little and saw Saburo storm in.

"Right," he snapped. "Listen up. Your boyfriend's gone renegade."

"Huh?"

"Garam's quit the Skulls. If you see him, you put a bullet through his brain."

"What?" Cube tried to shake the sleep out of her mind. "Why?"

"He wouldn't ice your little pal, or the Miyamoto boy. Threw down his weapon, stun-gunned me, and legged it."

"He – he's left?"

"Yeah. He said he didn't want to see you again, thought you were a wimp or something."

"What?" Cube felt her strength start to melt. "He – he's dumping me?"

"Yeah. Sorry, babe."

Cube pressed a hand to her mouth to stop her lip trembling. It didn't work.

"Oh, Cube-chan…" Saburo came to sit next to her, put a hand on her shoulder. His palm was dry, rough on her damp skin.

_I'm all on my own…He did think I was a monster, he knew it all the time…_

Saburo gripped her shoulders, turned her to face him, kissed her, then started pulling off the T-shirt she wore at night. 

No! Cube's mind yelled. No, I don't want this, not now!

But her body felt too tired to do anything, and her mouth was covered with his. She closed her eyes, head pounding, and waited for it to be over.

***

Tab swallowed. Everything seemed very quiet. Shibuya street sounds whispered on the edge of his hearing, but inside the garage the air was silent.

"Put your hands up," the paratrooper said.

"You wouldn't shoot me," Tab said, his voice seeming too loud. "Onishima would have your hide."

The man shrugged. "That ain't my concern. Come on. You're under arrest."

Tab glanced round the garage, trying to gauge the situation. He couldn't see anyone outside the window, not rudie, not cop. He was on his own. 

"Move it!" the man yelled, and then there was a shot.

Tab was flung back against the sofa. Staring down at his arm, he saw blood eating up the white of his sleeve.

"Oh, shit," he whispered.

Okay, his mind hissed, don't get scared, don't get scared, don't get scared…

I'm scared.

His arm was starting to throb – it felt numb and painful at the same time. For some reason that freaked him out almost as much as the rest of the situation. 

He got to his feet, slowly. There didn't seem much else he could do.

***

Future Gum walked down the street, furious with Yo-Yo. Past Gum was a little way behind them, and so Future Gum was forced to talk in whispers.

"Why the hell did you kiss her?" she hissed.

"Who?" Yo-Yo shifted the shopping bag full of cereal from hand to hand.

"You know who. My past self."

"Oh. Her. What makes you think I kissed her?"

Gum fought down the urge to hit him with the six-pack of Coca-Cola she was holding. "I saw you, Casanova."

"Oh. Well, why didn't you say something sooner?"

"Because I wasn't going to humiliate myself in front of myself, thanks very much. Why did you do it?"

"I thought you said what happened between us was just a fling."

"It was," Gum snapped. "I'm objecting to you corrupting my past self."

"Oh, come off it, Gum, it's not like you were an angel five years ago. You're just jealous."

"I am _not _jealous!" Gum yelled.

"Of course you're not. You're just pissed your other self is getting all the good stuff."

"Yeah, right." Gum felt herself blush. "Liar."

"It's tru-ue…"

"Don't make me hurt you, Yo-Yo."

He snorted. "Hit me baby one more time? Oh, yeah, go on."

"You are so immature." Gum walked on ahead of him, heart pounding with rage. 

"Will you look at the way she swings dem hips?" Yo-Yo said from behind her. 

"Shut up."

"I see you baby…shaking that ass…"

"Shut up!"

They'd reached the garage now, thank god. Gum marched over to the door, flung it open – 

– there was a shot – 

She saw the paratrooper, and clonked him over the back of the neck with the Cola.

The man crumpled to the ground.

"Excellent timing, Gum-chan," the Noise Tank standing facing them said.

"Tab? Are you okay?"

"Apart from the slight problem of the bullet holes, yeah, I'm peachy."

"What?"

"Look." He pointed, and Gum saw the red, crimson and beautiful against his suit, on his chest and his arm.

"Oh, shit!" she yelled. "Does – does it hurt?"

"I'm not sure." Tab carefully skated back and dropped onto the sofa. "It feels kinda weird. But maybe you'd better call an ambulance, just in case."

"I'll do it," Past Gum said, going pale as she saw Tab. 

"What was he doing in here?" Gum flung down the Cola. "Did he just find us?"

"I have no idea. But if he's here, others may follow. I think we should vacate the premises."

"Good idea. Can you walk?"

"I'll try." Tab got gingerly to his feet. He skated a few steps, then staggered. Gum grabbed hold of him, and saw more blood soaking into his clothes.

"Oh, shit…"

"No," Tab said. "I can't. I'm feeling kinda dizzy…"

"Oh, shit…"

"Where…where were you guys, anyway?"

"We went to buy food. Yo-Yo being all alone, he decided shopping was out. Now you and Past Gum have turned up, we thought we needed some more breakfast stuff at least." Gum felt herself babbling. She was scared now.

"I've called," Past Gum said. "They're on their way."

Gum nodded. "Thanks. Where did you say we were?" 

"Here."

"You and Yo-Yo get out, then. I'll wait with Tab. There may be more cops crawling around. Meet you at – uh –"

"The…the loft, 74…in the Benten residential area…" Tab said. "My place…"

"Okay." Gum didn't look happy – she glanced at Yo-Yo, and blushed – but she walked to the door anyway.

"No, don't go that way," Yo-Yo said. "Out the back window. Safer."

He and Past Gum hurried into the other room. There was the sound of rattling, something was kicked over, and Yo-Yo cursed.

"You guys okay?" Gum called.

"Yeah…yeah…it's too early for this…"

At last it all went silent.

"Tab," Gum said. "Are you – uh – okay?"

"Trying…to be. Don't worry."

There was more blood. Gum heard a dim ringing sound in her ears, and swallowed. She was not going to faint. This was no worse than the time Yo-Yo had got a nosebleed after 'accidentally' walking in on Mew in the shower. Honest.

"Hey, are…are _you _okay?" Tab said. "You're sorta…"

He stopped speaking.

"Tab?" Gum heard her voice growing unsteady with panic. "Tab? I'm sorta what? What? Tell me!"

Tab slumped forward.

"Oh – oh, shit!"

(Please r+r! Oh, and if anyone wants to see some of my pictures relating to this fic, go to www.side7.com and find me on the author list – I'm down as Tallulah Doret. Thanks!)


	8. Fear

Chapter Eight – Fear

Tab blinked. The ceiling was moving. 

Or was it just the shadows?

He felt really weird. Like all his energy was seeping out through his skin. Was it? Or maybe this was a dream. 

"What's going on?" he said, or tried to. His voice sounded far away, echoing up to the top of the darkness around him.

"Don't worry…you'll be okay…"

The ceiling rushed away from him, and he felt himself falling. And yet he was lying flat, not moving at all…this was too crazy. He wanted out. He hoped Gum was okay.

They'd shot him…was he going to die…he couldn't get out of the dark, was this what it was like? He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die…

Falling, falling, darkness.

Nothing.

***

Past Gum watched as the ambulance tore away, the siren howling into the summer air. Future Gum had gone with Tab.

She turned to Yo-Yo, and tried to think of him as just a guy who didn't mean anything to her and was not really good-looking and whom she didn't want to grab round the neck, kiss senseless and then push to the ground and do stuff that you could get arrested for if you did it in public. 

That wasn't tagging.

Okay. Yes. Just another guy.

"Looks like it's just you and me," she said, and cursed inwardly. Like, totally try and flirt with him, why don't you?

"Yeah." Yo-Yo stared at his feet.

Gum sighed. This sucked. She could feel the silence growing heavy around her. Quickly she clicked on Jet Set Radio.

"…Gum's made a daring escape from Sing Sing, Tab seems to be movin' away from the pocket calculator squad, and there's a familiar-looking new GG in town…looks like an old gang's making a comeback, boys and girls! Ex-GG Beat's being transferred from police station to new jail…listen up, dude, your gang's not down and out yet!"

"Yo-Yo!" Gum yelled. "We have to get moving!"

"Why? What's happened?"

"He's being moved! This is our chance! If we try and get him out later it'll be impossible, but we can do it now, we have a plan, remember?"

"What the hell are you on about?" 

"Beat's being moved," Gum hissed. "We do our plan."

"But there's only two of us."

Oh, don't I know it, Gum muttered silently. Out loud she said, "We can still do it. Now quick. Let's hurry."

Beat leant his head against the wall of the van, and wondered if he'd be able to go back to sleep.

His earlier misery had mutated into a sort of depressed numbness. Now he was trying not to focus on what he'd done, more on where he was going. 

They can't keep you in jail forever, he told himself.

Can't they? Who cares enough to get you out?

He'd asked himself that before, and then he'd been able to answer 'the GGs.' But now – assuming they were still okay – they weren't going to want to have anything more to do with him.

Okay, dude, stop thinking now.

Suddenly the van jerked to a halt, and he was thrown forward. The brakes screeched, and he heard the driver swear.

Then there was a rattling from the rear doors of the van.

***

(A/N: Give me a break if you think this escape plan is pathetic. I find that sort of thing hard to think up – I tried, people! LORD KNOWS I TRIED! Ahem. Sorry.)

Gum swallowed as she wrestled with the chisel. She knew absolutely zilch about lockpicking. So she was going for the Maim, Kill And Destroy approach to getting past this barrier.

It was making her wrists ache.

She took a deep breath, and battered at the lock on the rear door again. Cars rushed past her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the GG car parked by the side of the motorway. Yo-Yo, she knew, would be waiting in it, after cutting down the tree now blocking the road. That guy was scarily good with a chainsaw.

And other things too…

Oh, shut up! Gum hit the door with the chisel, then slotted it into the gap between the two doors, and wrenched.

There was a crunch, and the door swung open.

She stopped it opening too far, and stuck her head in. 

Beat was sitting inside the van, handcuffed, one arm in a sling. Their eyes met, and his mouth dropped open.

"Quick," Gum hissed. "Out the back!"

Beat slid across to her and wriggled through the door onto the road. Gum grabbed his arm and they hurried off towards the car.

Suddenly she saw the driver's door of the van open.

"Down!" She shoved Beat, and they flattened themselves against the grassy ground. The driver was walking round to investigate the fallen tree. As long as he didn't walk back afterwards…to investigate his prisoner…

Gum found her heart rate speeding up, and swallowed. 

Other cars were beginning to pile up behind the police van, and the air was slowly being filled with a cacophony of hooting, swearing and sulky engines. Gum wrinkled her nose at the stench of petrol mingling with the grass.

What if someone saw the door was open…

They had to get out of here.

She indicated the GG car to Beat, and they both started to slither towards it. Gum could make out Yo-Yo's features now. And her heart rate was still increasing, though not just from fear.

Stop it, she told herself. Stop it, stop it, stop it. You have to focus on important stuff now.

They reached the car. Gum opened the door, and let Beat climb in. She followed, and slammed the door behind them.

"Now move," she hissed to Yo-Yo. 

"I got it."

The car did a 180-degree turn, leaving tyre marks in the grass, and screeched off back towards Tokyo-to.

Gum looked back at the snarl of traffic they'd created. Even if someone did realise what had happened, it'd be hard to give chase. Which was good. So…they should get away with this.

"Nice going," Yo-Yo said. "Jailbreaks rule!"

Gum grinned, and for a moment she could almost forget she was in the wrong time. 

Then she glanced at Beat, and remembered again.

He sat, staring out of the window, looking like he expected someone to hit him any moment, his lip split, his eyes sunken with fear. Gum swallowed. Suddenly she really, really wanted to be back in the past again. To go and warn him. To go and save him so he didn't end up like this. She clenched her fists. She had to get back, she had to, she had to…

"You're okay," Beat said. "I thought…"

"What?" Yo-Yo leaned round from the driver's seat. "We're fine, dude. Gum got outta jail, didn't she? Thanks to you."

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Wow, Gum, you don't look any different from five years ago."

"No." Gum debated trying to explain, and decided not to. Beat looked tired enough already.

"Yo-Yo," she yelled, "watch the road!" 

"Yipe!" Yo-Yo swung round and grabbed the steering wheel. 

Gum breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at him looking at her had made her feel dizzy. 

"I thought your hair was longer," Beat said to her.

"Um. Well. I've cut it since. What happened to your arm?"

Beat swallowed. "Oh, Onishima got pissed, that's all."

"He broke your arm?"

"Hey…he doesn't like rudies." Beat had gone pale. "I'm fine, okay?"

You don't look it, Gum wanted to say, but she kept quiet.

"Where're we going?" Beat asked as Yo-Yo tore through the walkway district. 

"A hideout in Benten. Seems like the cops have been sniffing round the garage. Ta –"

"Yeah, but don't tell him about that now," Yo-Yo interrupted. "I would've thought the last thing he wanted to think about was cops. Come on, Beat, let's get you home, get you out of the handcuffs, and then it'll all be cool."

Gum glared at the back of his head. Will someone please tell me what's going on? she snapped in her mind.

"The – the cops have been round?" Beat said. He sounded nervous.

"We won't let 'em get you again," Yo-Yo said. "Don't worry."

They skidded into Benten-cho residential district, then slowed as Gum squinted at the house numbers. "58…60…62…"

"We're looking for 74," Yo-Yo said.

"I know!"

"The others are all okay, right?" Beat said.

"Yeah, as far as we know. Except for –"

"Gum, keep your eye on the numbers!" Yo-Yo said.

Gum wondered if braining him with a can of spray paint would make her feel better. "Okay. Fine. 70…72…74…Stop!"

Yo-Yo screeched to a halt. 

They got out of the car and hurried into the house. The first two floors were empty except for some rotting pieces of furniture. The top floor consisted of two rooms, one completely bare, the other containing a computer, a sleeping bag, and several cans of spray paint.

"Looks like this is the place," Yo-Yo said. "Now we just have to wait."

"For who?" Beat asked.

"Um. This is the hard bit to explain," Yo-Yo said. "You see –"

Suddenly they heard running footsteps, the door burst open, and Future Gum rushed in. "Guys! Guys! He's in hospital, they don't know how it's going to – oh. Oh."

She stopped. "Hi, Beat."

Beat slowly glanced from Past Gum to Future Gum and back again.

"Yeah," Past Gum said. "This is the hard bit."

"Who's in hospital?" Beat said, his voice shaking. "Who?"

Future Gum and Yo-Yo glanced at each other. 

"Beat," Future Gum said, "listen. You're really tired, okay? We can talk about this later –"

"Just tell me."

"It's Tab," Future Gum said quickly. "But listen, now don't start panicking –"

"What happened?"

"A paratrooper came to the garage and shot him," Past Gum said. 

"Oh, way to go!" Yo-Yo snapped. "Don't, like, break it to him gently or anything!"

"That's why we're here, isn't it?" Beat said. He'd gone very white.

"Yeah." Future Gum glared at Past Gum. 

"Is he going to be okay?" Yo-Yo asked at last.

"Of course he is." Future Gum's voice wobbled.

"Don't lie!" Beat yelled. "Just tell me! If he's going to die, tell me, then at least I can know I killed him!"

"Beat, stop it!" Future Gum was crying now. "He's not going to die, okay? They're working on him, they don't know what the outcome will be."

Beat drew a long, tired breath. He looked very thin, and very vulnerable.

"Look," Yo-Yo said. "Future Gum, go and explain to your past self the situation. Beat, lie down and sleep a bit. I'm gonna surf the Net, see if I can find something interesting."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Future Gum said. She grabbed Gum's shoulder and dragged her out of the door. 

"Right," she said, closing the door. "Will you please keep your fat mouth shut in future?"

"Why? He should know what's going on!"

"You didn't have to say it like that! Blurting it out…geez, how dumb can you get?"

"Why? What's going on?"

Future Gum sighed and closed her tear-stained eyes a second. "Tab left the GGs, right?"

"Right."

"Did he tell you why?"

"No. None of you will. None of you will tell me anything!"

"Shut up, I'm telling you now. Beat and Tab were dating."

(A/N: I really, really hope this doesn't offend/annoy anyone. I had my reasons. If you're part of a flame-wielding mob, I'm not here, okay? (Course, if you're bearing gratuitous praise, I most definitely AM here, but only unofficially.^^)

"What?" Gum felt her jaw drop.

"Don't tell me you're a 'phobe. I'm not so you shouldn't be either."

"It's just a shock, okay? I – I mean – how come? Beat's just been away for five years!"

"They'd been going out before that. Why else do you think Tab was worried about him when he stormed out?"

"So Tab left…"

"He left because the whole GG thing was too depressing, too many memories, you know. That's why he's been down lately. And that's why I really didn't need you spilling the beans to Beat like that."

"Well, if you'd told me earlier, I wouldn't have done it!" Gum felt hot fury bubble up under her ribs at the patronising tone in her future self's voice. 

"I didn't know if I could trust you."

"I'm you!"

"Yeah, well…" Future Gum shrugged. "Just lay off him, okay? Have some tact."

"Quit talking to me like I'm a kid."

"You are a kid, you're only seventeen."

"What do you mean, 'only?'"

"We've grown up now. Moved on. All that shit. You're still…how can I put this? You're so…idealistic."

"What the hell is _that _supposed to mean?"

Future Gum scowled. "Look, this isn't easy for me. Seeing myself as I was then is kind of embarrassing."

"Well, seeing what I'm going to turn into is pretty bad as well!" Gum snapped.

"Are you insulting me?"

"I'm just saying I know I don't spend my life talking out of my ass."

Future Gum's eyes narrowed. "Say that again and I'll break your face."

"Just try it. You'll be giving yourself the bruises."

"You know what?" Future Gum said. "You are the most immature, bratty, childish person I've ever met."

"And you're the most stuck-up, boring, big-mouthed person I've ever met."

"You bitch," Future Gum said. "Don't think I didn't see what you were doing with Yo-Yo."

"What? What's that got to do with anything?"

"You just come in here and you think you can steal him from right under my nose!" Future Gum's voice was rising. 

"What do you mean? You guys aren't together as well, are you? Cos if you are, _he _hasn't said anything."

"Just stay away from him."

"Is that a threat? If I want to go with him I will, and you can't stop me."

"Don't you dare!"

"What, you're scared of yourself?" Gum felt her lips curve into a smirk. "Come on, if I get to go with him it's you getting the good stuff. We're the same person, remember?"

Future Gum shoved her. "I mean it. He's mine, not yours, and you should leave him alone!"

"I should, should I? Well –"

Suddenly the door opened and Yo-Yo looked out. "Guys," he said, "I thought you were just updating each other, not having a bitch fight."

Future Gum didn't answer.

"How's Beat?" Gum asked.

"Asleep. He's not too happy, he seems to think he's killed Tab or something."

Gum sighed. "I hope he's gonna be okay."

"Why should it bother you?" Future Gum snapped. "You'll be back in the nice time zone sooner or later."

"I didn't ask to come here –"

"Ladies, please!" Yo-Yo hurried between the two Gums. "Right. Future Gum and I will go and get some lunch for us all. Past Gum, you'll stay behind with Beat. Okay? Okay. Let's go."

He grabbed Future Gum's arm and dashed away.

Gum sighed and walked back into the room. Beat lay curled up on the sleeping bag, looking worried even now.

"I'm sorry," Gum whispered. "If I get back, I'll save you, all right? I'll warn you and you'll come home with me and everything will be okay."

But what if I never get back?

I have to have done. Otherwise Future Gum wouldn't be here.

She shivered. It wasn't a nice feeling, knowing she could search and search and search and never find the GGs she'd left behind because they were gone. They didn't exist. 

She stared at Benten-cho, spread out below her. So many people. So many lives. So many groups and families and friends.

None of them hers. 

***

Mew and Isas had got to school at ten o'clock, an hour and a half late. Isas had immediately dashed away, and Mew, unable to face physics, had slunk off to lurk in the library.

It was now twelve. She hadn't been able to face geography either. She was sitting, hidden behind a book on the Periodic Table, trying to numb her brain.

It wasn't working.

She hated Isas. And yet she wanted him to like her, and wanted to be close to him, and wanted to…wanted to kiss him?

Oh, geez, get a life! Mew focused on the book.

_Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Caesium, Rubidium and Francium are known as the Group One Elements…_

Suddenly there was a burst of chatter, and she glanced up as a bunch of people scattered into the library. One of them was Suki. Mew quickly ducked down behind the book again.

"Oh, Mrs Fuyada," Suki was saying sweetly to the librarian, "There's a problem in the chemistry lab. Something about stolen textbooks. Miss Naganumi asked me to ask you to come over there if that's okay?"

Mew swallowed as the librarian got to her feet and walked out. She was now alone with Suki and a gang of her friends. This was not cool.

She focused on the book so hard her eyes ached, trying not to breathe the scent of printer's ink. 

"Right," Suki hissed. "Let's get going. Into the basement."

Mew shrank down behind the book and waited as they went past, each footstep trembling on her hearing. 

"Come on, Isas," Suki said. "If we get caught we'll be done for."

Isas?

Mew fought not to pick up the book and throw it at Suki. Damn her, and damn him, and damn herself, for fancying a stupid little schoolboy.

Suki was doing something bad. 

Mew felt a smile creep over her face. Okay, so teacher's pets were the lowest of the low, but she still hadn't forgiven Suki for her remarks earlier. And she could just _see_ what was going on…

She got to her feet, and walked round the edge of the shelf, just in time to see Isas and the others creeping down the stairs to the basement floor of the library. 

She tiptoed after them.

When reached the ground, she dodged behind the nearest shelf, then inched two books apart to make a gap. Squinting through it, she saw Isas standing in a circle of people, looking nervous, but determined. Her heart gave a little jump at that, but she tried to ignore it, and strained to hear what Suki was saying.

"So you want to join?"

"Yeah." Isas's voice was surly, tough-guy, no trace of nervousness.

"I don't know. You and Miyako seemed pretty pally."

"Yeah, well, I was dumb, wasn't I?"

"She sure freaked at you this morning," someone else said.

"And I have no idea why."

Mew gripped the cold metal shelf in order to stop herself running round and pitching a book at them all.

"Okay, then," Suki said. "But I heard you were moving house tomorrow."

Isas shrugged. "My parents are. But I'm not letting rudies drive me out of my home."

"So you want us to protect you?" Suki smirked.

"I want revenge."

There was silence a moment. Then Suki said, "Cool. You're in. If you complete the task, that is."

"What task?"

"We're coming to that. Right, guys, you ready?" Suki turned to the others. They nodded.

Then each person peeled off their school jumper.

Under it they weren't wearing school blouses or shirts, but sharp white T-shirts which glowed in the light. 

With two black bones, crossed, on the chest.

Mew gulped. What the _hell _was going on?

"Miyamoto Isas," Suki said. "You're being accepted into the Crossbones, on probation. Do you swear that you'll never betray us, no matter what happens?"

"Yeah." 

The white-clad figures took one step closer.

"Do you swear that you'll never leave us, remain faithful until death do us part?"

"Yeah."

The figures closed in further, like a ring of ghosts.

"Do you swear that you'll do your best to exterminate, destroy, and wipe rudies from the face of the planet?"

_What? _Mew gripped the shelf so hard her finger bones clicked.

She stared at Isas. He was very pale.

Then he nodded.

***

Garam stood in the factory yard, leaning against the relay tower. It was night. 

And it was still baking hot. Garam rubbed sweat off his forehead. 

He glanced at his watch. Five to ten.

Would she come?

Of course she would. They were together.

The factory was filled with shadow. Garam was glad he didn't have to wait in there. The darkness looked almost solid. He shifted position, so that he could keep an eye on the entrance. Not that anything would come out of the doors, but it was best to make sure.

Above him, the last dregs of the sunset spilled across the sky.

Three minutes to ten.

But she'd called him a weakling. And she – she thought the Skulls ruled. Maybe she'd just decide he wasn't worth it. Maybe she just wouldn't come. 

It was very quiet. No footsteps. No cars. No voices. Just the night, and the holes of shadow falling across the ground.

Then a rustling a few feet away from him.

Garam wished he hadn't broken his sunglasses. He really, really wanted the night vision function. There didn't seem to be anything in the dark, but…

Saburo knew where he was, and the Skulls were supposed to kill deserters.

Oh shit. Why hadn't he realised that earlier? Why hadn't he told Cube himself, kept his mouth shut to Saburo?

__

Because you wanted to see the look on the bastard's face…

The heat pounded in his head, ricocheting off his eyeballs. He didn't have a weapon. He didn't even have skates. He was defenceless.

Ten o'clock.

And Cube wasn't there.

Maybe Saburo didn't let her come.

Maybe she just didn't want to. 

An owl hooted, somewhere on the factory roof.

This place was too familiar, anyway. The number of times he'd ground along those telephone wires, scattering the birds, the number of times he'd taken cover in that factory, the number of times he'd scrambled up the heap of cars, rust flecking his skates…

It hadn't changed and it should have done. Most other places had, just a little. But this – this was timeless. No one came here now but rudies and the Keisatsu in pursuit of them. The Rokkaku had abandoned it long ago, and so, barring vagrants, had the public.

__

Crunch.

Footsteps on the ground above him.

More sweat rose on Garam's skin. 

The walker moved around the edge of the yard, then there was a clatter as she – or he – dropped onto the heap of cars. Garam tensed. He could just make out an approaching silhouette, blacker than the ground around it.

"Garam-kun. I see you're waiting for your lady-love."

Garam swallowed. Saburo. He clenched his fists, and didn't answer.

"I'm not here to kill you, if that's what you're worried about," Saburo said. "I know I should, but hey. I like you. Which is why I don't want to tell you the news about Cube."

"What?" He said the word without meaning to.

Saburo walked closer, and suddenly light burnt Garam's eyes as the Skull flicked on a torch.

"She ain't coming."

Garam felt a dull ache spread over his heart.

"Why not?"

"She told me that the Skulls are more important to her. _She's _sticking up for her beliefs."

Garam swallowed. He wouldn't let this guy see he was hurting.

"Right," he said. "I'll be off then."

Saburo shrugged, his eyes elongated by the torch shadow. "I'll be sorry to see you go, Garam."

Garam started to move away from him. He was almost back at the pile of cars when Saburo clicked off the torch, and spoke.

"You know when I said I wouldn't kill you?"

"Yeah." Garam tried not to put his foot through a windscreen.

"I lied."

The windscreen shattered.

Garam turned and climbed for his life.

His muscles were aching by the time he got to the top of the cars. Another shot hit the wall, and he looked back to see – nothing. The yard was a pit of shadow, and Saburo could be anywhere.

Oh shit…

Saburo would expect him to make a dash for the gate back to Kibogaoka, right? So do the unexpected…which is what?

He was silhouetted against the night sky –

A bullet raised a small puff of dust at his feet.

He leapt back into the shadow of the wall, and tried not to breathe.

"Garam?" Saburo called. "Come on. If I don't get you the cops will. Or Cube."

Garam's stomach wrenched at the thought of Cube killing him like she killed cops, then his mind danced away from the subject like it was too hot to touch.

"Come on, Garam."

Saburo had reached the top of the cars now. That was a mistake. He was now visible.

Garam reached out for the long metal pole lying a foot or two away from him. His sweating fingers closed on it as he watched Saburo.

Who was getting closer.

Oh, shit…

The torch clicked on again. Saburo's face glowed. The beam crept along the ground, darting over wall and barrel and cat skull, until it touched Garam's face.

Oh, shit…

Garam threw himself to the ground as the shot rang out. He rolled, over and over, towards Saburo, still clutching the pole, collided with his ankles. Saburo stumbled, and Garam, leaping to his feet, raised the pole, brought it down on Saburo's flailing figure, there was another shot which echoed into the darkness…

And then it all went quiet.

Garam drew a deep breath. He couldn't see whether he'd killed Saburo and at the moment he didn't care. He wanted out.

He ran along the path, dust gathering in his shoes, and leapt out over Kibogaoka.

***

Yo-Yo skated through Benten-cho residential area, and wondered if it was karma that was making his life go so crazy.

Okay. So Gum wasn't caught. So she was safe. Good thing.

So her past self had just turned up. Bad thing.

But both selves were, like, totally hot. Technically a good thing.

But really a bad thing, because if he went with one of them, the other would, quite possibly, inflict a high quota of GBH on his person. He'd heard them arguing.

And he'd kissed the past self. Good thing. 

Except future self had found out. Bad thing.

And now…

Well, and now, he was escaping out of the loft, because with Tab in hospital, Beat being terminally depressed, and the two Gums snapping at each other's throats, it was becoming a totally not groovy place to be.

He stopped at the end of the street, and began painting an X-tra Large tag. Women. Geez, who needs them?

Well, I sure do.

Maybe when the past self went home to her own time zone, he'd be able to apologise to the future self, and they could pick up where they'd left off. 

Oh, no – she didn't want anything like that, did she? She wanted to concentrate on her career.

And the past self was interested, but whenever he went near her he felt guilty…

"Arrrgh!" Yo-Yo threw the can of spray paint at a nearby pot plant.

"What's with you, rudie?"

A girl's voice rang out behind him. Yo-Yo turned.

Four figures stood in a line across the street, each one clad in a white T-shirt with a black bone cross on the chest.

"None of your business," he retorted. Who were these freaks?

"Watch your mouth."

The girl snapped out the words, and as she said the last one, each figure drew out a weapon.

The guy on the left held a carving knife. The girl next to him clutched a katana. The next guy held a broken bottle, and the girl who'd spoken to him raised a pistol.

Yo-Yo gulped and felt a small flame of unease kindle in his stomach. "Nice inventory," he said, wishing he couldn't hear his voice shaking. "But I got better things to do than wait around watching a miscellaneous weapons display, okay?"

He stepped forward, and the girl caught him across the face with her gun. 

"You're not going anywhere, rudie scum," she said.

"Do you have any idea how boring that line has got?"

She swung her arm, and Yo-Yo gasped as the pistol caught his temple again. It was like a signal. The other three figures rushed towards him. Yo-Yo ducked, kicked out at the feet of one of them, felt a sharp blade scrape through his hair, tried to make a dive under someone's arm, sharpness stabbed his face. He wrestled with terror as he was pushed back into the circle.

The girl's eyes were wide, and he could see her hand tensing on her gun. 

"Kill him," she said.

(Heh heh heh…ahem. Sorry. Please r+r!)


	9. Violence

Chapter Nine – Violence

(Isas, Suki and the Crossbones are © me. No one else is. Please r+r!)

Yo-Yo swallowed and watched as the weapons were raised. A blade glinted in the streetlight. 

This was gonna hurt.

"I don't think so."

A new voice rang out around the street.

"You gonna stop us, rudies?" the girl said. Yo-Yo couldn't see who she was speaking to, but the voice sounded familiar.

"Listen, bitch," another voice said. Yo-Yo recognised it as Gum's. "You scat right now. We've called the cops. And if you don't want to spend a night in the cells, you'll disappear."

"Why should the cops arrest us?" the girl said. "You're the lawbreakers."

"Murder's still a crime," Gum said. 

Yo-Yo swallowed. It sounded like she had only one other person with her. 

He really didn't want to die.

"They don't care about rudies," the girl said, sounding sulky now. "They just want you off the streets. What's so bad about us doing this? No one wants you around."

"Last thing I heard, being a vigilante was still illegal," the guy with Gum said. Yo-Yo was pretty sure he recognised the voice now. It was Garam.

What the hell was Gum doing with a Skull?

"She's right, Suki," one of the guys said. "If we get caught my dad'll kill me."

Gum snorted. "What's this? School's out for murder?"

"Shut up, Isas!" Suki yelled. "Your dad left. You're on your own."

Yo-Yo felt someone grip his hood, hauled him to his feet, then the coolness of Suki's gun stroked his forehead.

"Keep away from me, rudies," Suki said.

The only good thing about this position was that Yo-Yo could see who was trying to help him. It was indeed Gum – Past Gum – and Garam. 

As they took in the new situation, Gum's face whitened, and Garam swore.

"I'm gonna put a bullet through his brains," Suki said. "Then my friends are going to chop him up a little, make sure he's really dead. And if you two are still hanging around you'll get the same treatment."

"Suki…" the guy who'd spoken earlier said. Isas, Yo-Yo remembered.

"Zip it," Suki snapped. She shifted position. "Ready, rudie?"

"Screw you and the horse you rode in on," Yo-Yo snapped. His heart was running, and he could feel blood oozing down his face. 

"Back off," Garam said, tension rising in his voice.

"Get away from him!" Gum screamed. "Don't you dare hurt him!"

Suki sniggered, her face close to Yo-Yo's. She was leaning against him now, her body warm, her fingers gripping his hood, which was tightening round his neck. 

Gently Yo-Yo moved his elbow back. Okay, get ready…

Then he drove his elbow into Suki's stomach, so hard he wondered if he'd hit her spine.

She doubled over, retching, and he grabbed her wrist. Twisting it, he wrenched the gun out of her hand, then placed it at the back of her neck.

"Keep away!" he yelled at the other three figures. "Or I'll shoot!"

He started to skate backwards, slowly, towards Gum and Garam.

"Fuck you…" Suki snarled. "You won't…" She groaned. "You won't get away with this."

"Old line, babe," Garam said. 

They carried on backing away. The figures stayed standing in the middle of the street, looking lost. 

Yo-Yo felt his heels brush the truck that you climbed up to get to the railway. "Okay," he said. "We're going to leave you now."

"Yeah," Gum said. "But first…"

Yo-Yo heard the rattle of a can of spray paint, and smirked as Gum tagged all over Suki's back.

"There," she said. "This is how rudies do things."

"I'll…get you for…this!" Suki yelled as Yo-Yo flung her onto the pavement. "I mean it!" She swallowed, and continued, "You're gonna suffer!"

The three rudies dashed up the truck and through the gate. Garam paused to flip Suki off, then he joined the others, and they hurried away down the tracks.

"Are you okay?" Gum asked. She touched the cut on Yo-Yo's face, then stopped, blushing. "Um – well, are you?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Yo-Yo suddenly found he was trembling. "Lucky you guys turned up, though. Where'd you find Garam, anyway? I thought you were…uh…" _Brutally slaughtering cops._

"I quit," Garam said.

"What about Cube?"

He didn't answer. 

"I was in Kibogaoka," Gum said. "I went out a little while after you, and I met up with Garam. He said he wanted to come back, so we were heading to the loft."

"Ah. Yes." Yo-Yo swallowed. "The loft which is now surrounded by a bunch of knife-wielding loonies?"

"Oh."

"We can wait," Garam said. "They'll have to go away eventually."

"Yeah, but what if Beat or Future Gum decide they'd like to go out painting Benten red?" Yo-Yo imagined those two running into the group they'd just left, and swallowed. 

"Well, Beat doesn't seem to be feeling particularly sociable at the moment," Gum said, "and I bet my future self won't leave him on his own. They should be okay. But I pity any rudie out on the streets with no friends."

"Hang on," Garam said. "Beat? _Future _Gum?"

There was a short pause while Yo-Yo and Gum explained things.

"Right," Garam said. "Time travel."

"You'll believe it when you see them," Yo-Yo said. "Two gorgeous identical blondes? Hell, there's no other explanation."

Garam shrugged. "Whatever."

"Who were those freaks, anyway?" Gum asked as the track bent round to the left. "You know them, Garam?"

"Nope. Nothing to do with the Skulls, from what I could see. But –" He stopped.

"What?"

"They were like inverse Skulls."

"Huh?" Yo-Yo said.

"We – the Skulls – wear black T-shirts with a white skull on. This new lot've got white T-shirts with a black crossbones on. Sounds like they're some sort of group like the Skulls – but killing rudies instead of cops."

There was a worried silence, broken only by the hiss of a faraway train.

"That sucks," Yo-Yo said at last. "So – let me get this straight. We've been driven out of the HQ cos the cops have found it. We can't get to our other HQ cos these – Crossbones, I guess – might find it. Cube's still in the Skulls. Beat's terminally gloomy. Past Gum's stuck in the wrong time zone…"

"Um…" Garam swallowed. "The Skulls are sort of after me too."

"What?"

"If you quit, they're supposed to assassinate you. One guy nearly succeeded tonight."

"And don't forget Tab being in hospital," Gum said. 

"Thanks a bunch, fate!" Yo-Yo yelled to the night sky.

"Oh, come on, it's not all bad. Beat's out of jail, you're alive, Tab should be okay, and Garam's back with us," Gum said. "Now think, guys. How're we gonna get home? I'm freezing."

"Let's see where we are." Yo-Yo dashed over to the side of the track and peered over the wall. Benten-cho's streets blazed beneath him. There was no sign of the Crossbones.

"Okay," he said. "I think they've gone. But we'd better not risk going down there, right? They could be smarter than they look."

"That wouldn't be hard," Gum muttered.

"Then let's jump onto the phone wires, get onto the roof, creep along, and climb in through the window," Yo-Yo said.

"Um, I can't," Garam said. "I don't have skates."

"Garam!" Gum and Yo-Yo said.

"Sorry. No, but look, it's okay. I'll go over to Kogane-cho and get them back."

"You left your skates in Kogane-cho?" Yo-Yo said. "And you think they'll still be there?"

"I left 'em with some friends. And if those friends have lost 'em, I just won't say I quit the Skulls."

Garam's face in the half-light suddenly looked a lot darker.

"Right," Yo-Yo said. "Okay. The loft is the top floor of Number 74. Meet us there. If you see the Crossbones, run."

"I can handle 'em," Garam said.

"Skulls and Crossbones…" Gum said. "So they're not on your side, then?"

"I think I can safely say they're not," Garam said, and dashed away down the railway.

***

Beat yawned and opened his eyes. A square of early morning sunlight was spread across the ceiling.

He sat up a bit, and looked round the garage. Yo-Yo was curled up asleep in the corner, Garam was playing something on the computer – some game, Beat guessed, judging by the "Hah! Take that, scumbag! Die! Die!" phrases he was muttering – and Past Gum was staring everywhere except at Yo-Yo.

Beat sighed. He didn't want to admit it – it might be a dream, he might wake up – but he was safe. He could feel the comforting weight of skates on his feet, procured from Shibuya Hardware Store yesterday evening, and there were no bars, and no rattle of keys, and no one hitting him. 

He was really, really safe. It was so good it hurt.

He breathed out, slowly, and glanced at the people present again.

"Where's Future Gum?" he asked. 

"Went out to the hospital," Past Gum said. "Oh. Sorry."

Beat swallowed. 

This was the bad bit. "Is he – did you hear any news?"

Gum shook her head. "He's not –"

Suddenly the door burst open and Future Gum rushed through it.

"He's alive!" she yelled. "Alive and well and asking for you!" She grabbed Beat's hand and pulled him to his feet. "Come on! Come on now!"

"He's all right?" Beat dug his heels into the ground.

"Yes! Come on!"

Beat sighed. It wasn't that he didn't want to see Tab. He really wanted to see him, and just see that he was okay, and here, and…

But it was all his fault Tab was there in the first place. He'd kept waking last night, that thought burning through his brain. And wishing he knew what would happen. Waiting for someone in hospital was the pits. It was like the rest of life didn't seem to be real.

"I don't know…" he said.

"Come on, Beat," Yo-Yo said. "We don't mind if you go. You haven't been out since you got back here."

"Yeah," Gum said. "And Tab will really want to see you." She glared at him.

"I think she'll do you serious bodily harm if you don't go, man," Garam said, twisting round in the chair. 

"So move it," Gum said. "You wearing your skates? Good. Now come on."

"Watch out for the Crossbones," Yo-Yo said. He, Past Gum and Garam had updated the other two on last night's events.

Future Gum snorted. "I meet any dumb psycho schoolkids, they'll be the ones who have to watch out."

"I'm serious," Yo-Yo said. "They're dangerous. Look!" He touched the plaster covering the cut on his face. 

"Oh, dear, did it ruin your film star looks?" Future Gum snapped. "We'll be fine. Come _on, _Beat."

Beat let her drag him out of the room, but as they reached the stairs, he said, "Look, maybe this isn't a good idea."

"Beat, what is with you?" Gum stared at him. 

_I blabbed to the cops and they came and shot him. _

Yeah. Great line.

"Are you all right?" Gum asked. "I mean, I know you've been through a lot." 

Beat shrugged. He didn't want her to lead him into telling. If he kept it secret, maybe it would sort of disappear.

Except for the small fact that Tab was in hospital. 

"I'm fine," he said. "Honest. Let's get moving."

***

Shibuya General Hospital was quiet, and sun streamed in across the smooth beige floor. Beat followed Gum through the corridor, wishing he wasn't here. The guilt was starting to squash him. If it wasn't for Gum he _wouldn't_ be here.

But he wanted to see Tab so much…

Gum stopped at the entrance to a ward, so quickly that Beat nearly ran into her. "Here we are. Beat, are you sure you're okay? You –"

"I'm fine. Let's keep moving."

Gum sighed, but she walked into the ward, looking back now and then to check he was following.

Beat sighed. He really, really wanted to run now. But he wasn't going to. He had to face this sooner or later. He had to. 

The air was soaked with antiseptic and sweat. It made him feel even worse.

He began to walk past the other beds. First row…second row…

And they'd got there.

Tab was lying there flicking through a magazine. Beat's heart jumped at how pale he looked. He was okay, right? Gum had said he was okay and she wouldn't lie. He was gonna be okay. 

_If he isn't, we all know whose fault it'll be…_

I wish I wasn't here, his mind muttered.

But that was a lie. Part of his brain was walking around with a big stupid smile on its face, and thinking, _So this is why I wanted to get out of jail…_

Seeing him now was a shock. For five years he'd had nothing but memories, and they'd faded, or hadn't looked right. Now he wanted to memorise exactly how Tab looked. Just in case. In case now they saw each other it all went wrong and he was left with memories again.

__

Tab glanced up, and saw him.

Beat swallowed, and wished he didn't feel so guilty.

"You're here?" Tab said. "I mean – you aren't behind bars?"

"I guess not." Beat heard his own voice sounding stupidly calm and unconcerned.

"How?"

"Yo-Yo and Past Gum. They busted me out. While you were here."

Tab leant back, a grin spreading over his face. "That's the best news I've had all day." He gazed at Beat. "Wow. You're, like, here."

"Looks like it." And why can't I be happier about it?

"But what happened to your arm?"

"Onishima broke it." Out of the corner of his eye, Beat saw Gum making tracks back out into the corridor, and silently groaned. 

"What?"

"We all know what he thinks of rudies, don't we?" Beat tried to speak lightly. "He just lost it a little."

"But he broke your fricking arm…"

"Forget it." And don't ask exactly _why _he broke it. Please. "Are you okay? You're the one in here."

"I'm fine. Just a close encounter with a paratrooper."

"They've found the garage, haven't they." Beat sat down on the untidy bed. 

"Yep."

Beat felt sick. And I know why they found it, he thought. The knowledge was like a glass wall closing round him. Keeping him separate from everyone. From Tab. And there was nothing he could do, because he mustn't tell, he _mustn't…_

"Seems like it," Tab continued. "Gum said you're holing up at my place at the moment."

Beat nodded. "It's – it's cool. Pity we lost the garage, though." He'd wanted to see it again. The first building he'd remained in for any length of time that he'd actually liked.

And he'd lost it.

"Yeah. But I don't think I'd be too keen staying there at the moment." Tab laughed, but Beat saw the fear in his eyes. 

_Great. Just great._

"So…you're a Noise Tank, now, then?" he asked.

Tab shrugged. "I was. Now I don't know what I am." 

"Why'd you leave the GGs?"

"Why'd you think?" Tab sat up a little, winced, and dropped back. "It wasn't exactly fun hanging round in the garage and tagging GG stuff when I knew where you were. I was dead worried about you, for one thing, and for another…I just kept feeling like…like I missed you. Well, I did. In the end it was either leave, jump off a cliff or go give myself up to Onishima."

"You didn't need to worry. I was fine." If he kept saying that, maybe he'd stop remembering how scared he had been.

Tab gave him a who-are-you-kidding look. "You've got a face like you went and challenged a Poison Jammer to a punching contest. Onishima losing it again?"

"He was trying to get information." Beat focused on the blue sheet and tried not to listen to the memories rattling in his skull.

"And he calls _us_ scum." 

_Tell him, _part of Beat's mind hissed.

No way. No way. I don't need him telling me I'm a traitor.

_He won't. He won't, he knows what you've been through, he'll understand._

Won't he? 

I can't risk it.

"Hey, Beat?" 

Beat blinked and tuned back into reality. "Sorry. Forget it, okay? It's a hazard of our lives. You're the one who should be lapping up the attention, you got shot –" He stopped. He could hear his voice starting to shake.

"Oh, come on. You think a bullet or two could stop me?"

Beat didn't look at him. Suddenly he really wanted to be out of here, because he couldn't stop thinking, _One nearly did…_

"Beat," Tab said, more gently. "Look. It's okay, now. You're safe, I'm safe, we're together and it's okay."

"Yeah." 

No. It's not okay. And it isn't going to be.

***

Mew was taking precautions.

She didn't walk anywhere alone. She didn't say where she was going if Isas or Suki were even thinking of being in earshot. And whenever she had a spare moment, she rehearsed how to hurt, how to punch, how to escape from a stranglehold.

Those were the sensible options. 

The stupid one was lurking around Isas and Suki and their freaky gang and eavesdropping.

Not just to protect herself. To reassure herself that they hadn't done anything to her friends. She didn't know exactly what she'd do if she heard they had. Bursting into tears and attacking them with the nearest blunt object seemed a good start.

She had to keep checking that they hadn't. It helped her get through one more day.

It was lunch break now. They met in the basement library. It was a good place. All the books no one read were stored down there. Hardly anyone came in.

Mew waited, crouched down behind the furthest shelf, and watched as the Crossbones slunk in. Suki looked furious. Isas was cringing next to her.

"You goofed," Suki snapped at him. "You don't just decide to get cold feet, okay? You do what I tell you."

Control freak, Mew thought, breathing in the smell of old books, and trying not to move.

"I'm sorry," Isas said. "It's just – I – I –"

"You couldn't stomach the thought of killing?" Suki snorted. "Isas, that's what we do. The Skulls would kill all of us if they got the chance. We can't afford to be weak. We _have_ to make this work."

Isas didn't answer.

"I've been talking to the others," Suki said. "And we've decided on a new task for you to do. Seeing as you fluffed last night's…"

Isas's face remained carefully blank.

"Listen," Suki said. "You have to ice someone by yourself."

"Who?"

Suki smirked. "Miyako. Or Mew, as you call her."

"What?" Isas yelled. 

Mew just managed to stop herself doing the same thing. She gritted her teeth, flattened herself into the bookcase, and prayed.

"Kill – Miyako." Suki walked right up to Isas. "It won't be that hard."

"I can't," Isas said. "I can't."

"The door is that way," Suki said.

Walk out, Mew begged him silently. Please. Please.

He didn't move. 

"Well?" Suki said. "Are you in, or are you out?"

Isas sighed. 

Please go, Mew thought. Please. Please. Please don't kill me.

"I'm in," he said.

Mew dug her teeth into her lower lip. She had a horrible feeling she was about to cry.

And she was in deep, deep, _deep _shit.

Okay, she told herself, don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic. They'll go soon and you can follow them out and – and stay home sick or something. Or something. Oh, help me, help me, they're going to kill me…

"I think that's everything," Suki said to the others. "Except – oh, yes. If you see a rudie, kill it. Don't waste time talking. I want them dead, okay? You know what they're like, you know what they do to people. Kill them."

"We get it, Suki," a girl said. 

"Then let's move out."

Mew watched, not daring to breathe, as the Crossbones marched out of the library. 

As the door shut, she jumped to her feet, gasping as the pins and needles jumped under her skin. 

She was getting out of here and she was never, never coming back. She could feel tears building behind her eyes. Had she and Isas ever been friends? Or was it just a hallucination? She was going crazy already. Or she was going to die.

She staggered towards the library door –

It flew open. 

"I thought so," Suki said. "I thought I saw someone."

Mew prepared to scream, and Suki rushed forward and clapped her hand over her mouth. With her other hand she grabbed Mew's hair, pulling her head back.

"Isas," she yelled. "Come do your dare."


	10. Struggles

Chapter Ten – Gunshots

(Uhhh…don't own JSR, don't own GGs, do own Isas, Saburo and Suki. Yay. Please r+r!)

Cube curled up on her bed, and tried not to start crying again.

Her eyes stung from all the salt. The skin around them was tender. 

Garam had betrayed her. He'd left her. He'd left her in this darkness, walked out, gone back on his word. Left her with Saburo. 

She was frightened of Saburo now. Oh, he hadn't done anything – yet – but she knew if he decided he wanted to, she'd be powerless. She felt powerless. 

"Why don't you walk out?" she asked herself.

"I can't…I can't…" She heard her voice rise in panic, echoing up to the dark ceiling.

"I wish Combo was here," another voice in her mouth said.

"He'd laugh at you," she snapped. "He was right, wasn't he? You shouldn't have started this. And now he won't take you back because he knows what you've done. All those people. Those kids." 

She sat up a little, looked at her hands. They were nothing special, ten fingers, pale skin, broken nails. And they'd dealt out death like – like something. 

Cube laughed. This was so stupid. She was in such a dumb situation it was almost funny.

There was blood on her hands.

No, there wasn't.

She blinked. Her eyeballs were pounding. In fact, she felt really dizzy. She dropped back onto the bed, tangled hair spilling over the pillow, and stared at her hands again.

She honestly couldn't tell if there was blood there now.

She got up and walked over to the fridge, took out a can of Coke. 

Red washed over her vision, deep, dark, almost black. So much red. All those people, dead, completely dead, and she'd done it.

She snapped the Coke can open, and took a gulp of drink.

Like everything she ate or drank these days, it was like drinking liquid nothing.

The door opened, and Saburo walked in. He had a scar on his head, he'd said Garam had given it to him in the Kogane factory area last night.

"Cube-chan? Are you all right?"

Cube looked at him, and heard herself giggle. "I'm fine," she said. "Is there blood on my hands?"

"No." Saburo looked puzzled.

Cube shrugged. "Then I guess it's my eyeballs. Or maybe I'm just going nuts."

She giggled again, and found herself unable to stop. Her mind sat there, watching her body shriek with laughter, and started to become just a little bit worried.

"Cube, calm down," Saburo said. "Look, your boyfriend's not dead yet. If you see him – or Mew – you kill them. Okay?"

Cube decided not to answer.

"Cube!"

"Um…"

Saburo slapped her. Cube stumbled back, Coke dribbling over her hand, knowing she should be angry, but finding herself wanting to laugh again. Or cry. Or something.

"Do it," he said. "I'm not gonna get arrested because you're having a funny five minutes."

He's just told you to kill two of your friends, Cube thought. Why aren't you angry?

I don't really care. 

She stared at her hands again, trying to make out the blood. It had gone. She wondered if it would come back.

The Coke can slipped from her fingers, and the liquid started to spread over the floor. Dark. Ruddy.

Blood. Cube nodded, and smiled. There it was.

***

Mew tried to break free, but every move she made resulted in agonising scalp pain as Suki gripped her hair.

"Stop it," Isas said. "Come on, leave her alone."

"Isas, you don't get it, do you?" Suki said. "She's a rudie. Rudies want to kill you and your family. That's why you're with us. She didn't help you when that Skull came, did she?"

"That's a lie!" Mew yelled, wrenching her head free from Suki's grip. "If I hadn't been there she would have –"

Suki shoved her free hand around Mew's throat. 

"Kill her, Isas," she said. "Come on. Do it."

Fingers shaking, Isas took the gun one of the other Crossbones handed him, and released the safety.

"Help!" Mew screamed, feeling Suki's nails digging into her neck. "Someone help me!"

One of the Crossbones walked over and shut the door. 

Suki let go of Mew, who fell onto the ground. It knocked the breath out of her, and as she tried to stand up, Suki kicked her.

"Isas," Mew gasped, staring up into his face, "Isas, please. I didn't want to hurt you, I never have. Please, don't hurt me. Please."

"You never wanted to hurt him?" Suki screamed. "You rudies always want to hurt people!"

Mew was taken aback by the fury in her voice. 

"Isas," she said, "All rudies don't hurt people any more than all cops do."

"Do it, Isas," Suki said. "Now."

The gun wobbled as Isas pointed it at Mew.

"Help me!" she screamed. If someone was in the upper library, maybe they'd hear…oh, please, maybe… "Help me!"

"Shut up!" Suki yelled, kicking out. "Isas, move it!"

Several things then happened at once.

The door was flung open, and the librarian yelled, "What's going on?"

Isas shoved the gun down the front of his shirt.

The Crossbones scattered to grab their school jumpers. 

And Mew leapt to her feet, and ran.

And as she ran, the thought thrummed through her head – _would he have done it? Would he? _

Would he have killed me?

***

Future Gum knelt on the sleeping bag, the afternoon sunlight spilling over her face. She was reading Onishima's notebook.

She'd expected it to be some sort of legal mumbo-jumbo police record, but it wasn't. Not that that made it easy to understand.

Scribbly writing, sometimes too untidy to read, spilling over the pages in a black, angry flood…

And a lot of mention of rudies.

Gum sighed, and flicked back to the beginning of the book. The first page was dated 2nd June, 1999. 

_They want me to start writing down how it all feels. They say it'll help. Yeah, like hell it will. It's a waste of time. The only thing that'll help is getting out there and putting those punks behind bars for what they did._

Rudies, Gum figured. But what did we do? Surely tagging wouldn't freak him out like this.

There was a gap on the page, then another entry, dated 1st February, 2000. 

_This should get some stuff done. The Rokkakus at least have the skills to really hurt those kids. Had the first meeting with the Security Director today, that is, the guy who'll be working with me. He said the rudies were becoming a serious problem and desperate measures needed to be taken. Yeah, right. If they'd done that eight months ago she might still be – but I'm trying not to think of that. It's not professional. _

But it'll be sweet to hurt them at last.

Gum swallowed. This must have been when they founded the 21st Century Project. She knew that rudies weren't popular. But actually reading the venom unnerved her.

She pushed back her sleeve, ran a finger down the scar the paratrooper had left. The memory of that made her brain wince. 

Yo-Yo had been kind then. She remembered how he'd sat with her as she waited in casualty, how he'd tried to make her laugh to take her mind off it, how he'd held her hand…how strong his fingers had been…

Stop it! Stopitstopitstopit. You don't need a man. You don't want a man. And you especially don't want him.

How he'd run his fingers through her hair, how he'd kissed her…

"Arrgh!" Gum yelled to clear her head, then stared down at the notebook and started ferociously reading again.

_It's no good! It's just no damn good! Those kids are gonna get away with it and I can't do a thing. I'm failing her. Just like I damn well failed her back then – no. I've got to be able to do something. There's got to be something I've missed. Right? I'm gonna get them in the end, I have to. I have to._

Why? Gum asked him. What did we do? This is nothing to do with tagging. This is personal.

She read on, until she arrived at the entry dated 24th September, 2000.

_If this don't stop them nothing will. Damn human rights activists. Don't they get it? Those punks don't deserve rights! They know what they're risking. Only fair I should provide it. _

The three-strikes law. Gum glowered at the notebook. 

"We're still human," she said. "Whatever you think. You don't have the right to not give us a fair trial. Not that you'd listen to rudie scum."

Suddenly the door flew open, and Past Gum, Yo-Yo, Garam and Beat hurried in.

"Lots of news," Yo-Yo gasped.

"What?" Gum shoved the notebook under the sleeping bag.

"Well, first of all, the Crossbones struck. They killed a Noise Tank early this morning."

"They're serious, then?"

"You bet. He was shot in the back of the head, and someone drew a black cross on his chest. Sounds about right, don't it?"

"So we found that out," Garam said. "Then we headed round town – to warn the Love Shockers – and then we checked out the garage."

"And?"

"The cops are waiting for us," Garam said. "They've got it under surveillance. I don't think we're gonna be able to go back any time soon."

Gum felt an ache in her throat. She missed the garage. She wanted to be somewhere she knew.

"What, never?" she said at last.

"Not as long as the cops know about it, I'd say. But look. We were thinking. We've got five GGs now. Why don't we seek out the other five?"

"What – get them to come back?"

"Yeah," Yo-Yo said. "Maybe not Piranha and Slate – they're doing the family thing, after all – but Mew. Combo. Those two'd probably come."

"What about Cube?" Gum asked Garam.

He shrugged. "She didn't come when I asked her. I doubt she will for you guys."

"You sure?"

"I asked her to meet me. She didn't. That's about it, really."

"With Piranha and Slate…" Past Gum said. "How old is their kid?"

"Uhh…Hang on…" Yo-Yo's face contorted as he worked it out. "About four, I guess. Three or four."

"They might want to join in with us again," Past Gum said. "They needn't be full-time rudies, but they might like to be asked, at least."

"Okay. Someone can go try and find them. Beat, you said you didn't see Mew any time during the last five years."

Beat, who wasn't looking too happy, shook his head. "But…just cos I didn't see her doesn't mean she's not there."

"And what about Combo?" Future Gum said. "Someone gonna go to America?"

"It's a pity Cube's not here," Yo-Yo said. "She'd be best for that. She'd know where to find him."

Garam shrugged. "I don't want to see her again. If she prefers being a Skull to being here…"

"Well, you did," Past Gum said.

Garam glared at her. "I changed my mind, didn't I?"

"She might too."

"She won't. I seen what she's done."

"Oh, killing cops?" Past Gum said. "Let me think – who else does that?"

"Hey, calm down," Beat said.

"Why? We're all welcoming him back but he's still a murderer!"

"Of cops," Garam snapped.

"And they're not people?"

"They don't treat us like we're people," Garam snapped. "Why should we do it to them?"

"That's just stupid," Past Gum said. "I bet the Crossbones are saying the Skulls don't treat cops like people so they shouldn't treat rudies like people! We're all damn people, it's just some of us are worse than others!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Garam said through gritted teeth.

Past Gum shrugged. "I don't like murderers."

"Fine!" Garam yelled. "Then maybe I should just quit if that's what you think of me!"

"Stop it!" Beat yelled. "Both of you, shut up!"

They both turned to stare at him. 

"Look," Beat said, "just give it a rest, okay? You're both GGs and that's what's important at the moment."

"Yeah," Future Gum said, wondering if she'd ever been as pushy as Past Gum appeared to be. "We've all done nasty stuff. Let's forget about it, okay?"

Past Gum pressed her lips together for a moment, then sighed. "Fine."

Future Gum wanted to slap her. "Listen," she said, "You're the kid in this gang. We've all had a lot more experience than you, and –"

"I know, I know, I know." Past Gum marched over to the door. "You've had a lot of shit in your lives, so I have to shut up and let you live out your various crises. Or run away from the truth. Well, I'm going out. Censorship sucks."

"Grow up!" Future Gum yelled as she watched herself walk out. "Grow up and get a life!"

"Same to you, conscience," her past self said, before walking away.Gum kicked the wall, and then snarled, "Stop staring at me, okay?"

The other three GGs stepped back a few paces.

"Come on," Garam said. "Let's go back out."

He and Beat headed outside, but Yo-Yo didn't move.

"Go away," Gum said.

"Oh, come on. You think I'm gonna leave you on your own?"

Gum shrugged. "You've known me what, six years? You know I get mad. Learn to live with it."

He still didn't move.

"Why are you hanging around here?" Gum yelled.

"Because you're cute when you're angry."

"Oh, geez!" Gum looked round for something to throw, realised there wasn't much, and finally snapped, "I know you, Yo-Yo. You just want to have some fun."

"Don't you?"

"No!" Gum realised she was blushing. "Of course I don't. I'm through with you, remember?"

Yo-Yo sighed, walked forward, and kissed her.

I'll push him off in a minute, Gum thought as lightning jolted down her body.

Well, soon, anyway.

Soon.

***

You should be happy, Past Gum thought, tears running down her face. She'd stopped, looked back as Beat and Garam hurried past her – and now she couldn't stop staring.

Her future self had one hand on Yo-Yo's back, the other on his shoulder. Her hair hung down, glinting in the sunlight, and her black clothes clung to the suppleness of her body.

He's kissing you, isn't he? He's kissing the person who is you.

He likes her. And why shouldn't he? They're both grown-up. You're a stupid kid. Look at you. With that dumb pinafore dress and your helmet and your hair like a bird's nest. No _wonder _he likes her better.

But she's me.

But he's not kissing me.

Life sucks.

She turned and walked down the stairs.

Benten-cho was closed for the day, doors shut and windows dark with shade. Gum walked down the dusty street, and made her way out of the residential area to Genkijomae.

The square was empty. The air was so hot Gum wasn't surprised. Everyone had probably gone home to sleep.

She stood on the central platform in the square, and yawned. 

I'm stealing the guy I fancy. How confusing is that?

I want to go home. I really want to go home.

Tears bubbled up under her eyelids again.

No! I'm not sitting here crying any more.

She leapt onto a string of dead lights and skidded down towards the billboard. Bursting through it, she hurried along the passage, trying to soak up as much shade as possible. The coolness eased the miserable ache in her head. Benten-cho was so quiet – 

she turned the corner and saw the cops.

Three of them, leaning against the walls, one with his helmet off, his face flushed. And before she could even think to stop she'd slid into the middle of them.

She turned, skates catching on the ground, too slow, and forced her legs to run. She heard them shout, felt vibrations of footsteps rattle through the ground.

She'd just reached the line of lights when there was a bang, and a moment later, it felt like someone had shoved a red hot poker down through her skin to touch her shinbone.

__

"Shit!"

She leapt for the lights, but her leg was going dead and it wouldn't listen to her.

And she fell.

***

Beat heard the shot as they entered Genkijomae.

"Onishima?" he heard Garam mutter.

He stood, his heart pounding, praying it wasn't.

Coward, his mind jeered.

And then, suddenly, he saw Gum fall out of the billboard.

"What's with her?" Garam said.

"I think –" Beat squinted in the light. "I think she's hurt…"

"There's cops in the secret passage!"

Beat felt his heart stop for a second. They knew. Damn it, they knew…

"Beat, move it, we got to help her!"

Beat began to dash without thinking, the world rushing past him like a speeded-up film. Gum was crouched on the ramp of the truck, and as he got closer he could see she was crying. 

There was too much blood on her leg.

"Come on," Garam said, shaking her, then putting one of her arms round his neck. Beat did the same, and they struggled towards the railway entrance, Beat trying not to yelp as his broken arm was jarred.

Gum's breathing stumbled, sometimes turning into a whimper. 

"It's okay," Garam said to her. "It's okay. Man, kids today…"

Beat wanted to try and cheer her up as well. But he couldn't, his mouth felt frozen.

He had said too much. Well, he'd said too much anyway, but now he'd really said too much. 

"Oh, shit…" Gum's face was like white light. "Oh, shit…oh, shit, it hurts…"

"Think of your eyeballs," Garam said. 

"…What?…"

"Try not to think about it hurting."

Beat wondered if Garam'd had the same thing happen to him.

They were on the platform now. Beat could hear the Keisatsu coming down the stairs.

"Down into the tunnel," Garam hissed. "They won't follow us there."

He jumped down into it, then put his arms round Gum's waist and hoisted her down too. She screamed as her leg touched the ground, and Beat quickly jumped down himself and took her arm again.

Hobbling, they made their way along to the nearest alcove, and dropped down in the darkness.

"What happened?" Garam asked.

"The tunnel…they were in the tunnel…with a gun, they shot me…" Gum's skin was shiny in the faint glow from the platform some distance away.

"They had guns?"

"Yes…no Onishima…Oh, ow, ow…"

"Ssh." Garam gripped her shoulders. "Lie down for a bit, okay? Lie down and relax. And keep thinking about your eyeballs."

Gum crumpled onto the rough ground and closed her eyes. It was cool in here, cool and quiet except for the clatter of faraway trains.

"That's not good, is it?" Garam said at last.

"What?"

"Cops in the passageway."

"I guess not." Beat focused on the wall. His heart was pumping properly now, too fast, making him feel sick.

"You think someone's been talking?"

Beat couldn't speak. He managed to shrug.

Garam didn't say anything else for a few minutes, then at last he asked, "How long you reckon we're gonna be down here?"

"We could carry on down the tunnel. Come out someplace else, the cops wouldn't follow us there."

"If it were just us two, I'd do that, but I don't want to risk it with her. If a train comes we'd all be dead."

"So…we're stuck?" Gum said from the ground.

"For the moment."

And it's all my fault, Beat thought.

***

Mew lurked by the headmaster's office, watching through the window. She should be in maths, but she had to know what was going to happen.

Isas, Suki and the other two Crossbones were standing in a line, staring at the ground.

Would they get expelled?

What was Isas doing here anyway? He was supposed to have moved with his parents. Had he run away?

She stared at him, looking at his dark nervous eyes, his shiny black hair, lit with the strip lighting of the office, the way he was nervously chewing his bottom lip…her entire body felt breathless.

_He tried to kill you._

Did he really?

_Yes. He would have shot you. Suki would have egged him on._

He's a schoolboy and he would have shot me. Blood all over the library books. Mew felt a stupid grin sparkle on her face. He's cute and he would have shot me.

She gazed up at the sky. It was three o'clock now, and the sun was blazing. The sky burned blue, cloudless, like a desert. 

Good skating weather. The sort of weather where she'd learnt to do it, wobbling around Benten-cho while her parents screamed at each other or her grades plummeted to zero. She liked skating weather.

"There she is!"

Suki.

Oh, shit.

Mew turned to see the four Crossbones glaring at her.

"Haven't you been de-weaponed?" she called.

"We'll strangle you if we have to! Come on!"

They rushed towards her.

Mew decided to forgo maths for today, and ran for the school gates.

If she'd been on skates, there would have been no problem. But her shiny shoes, sticky inside, gave her no extra speed, and she could hear the others gaining on her.

She was still fit – rudies had to be fit – but was she fit enough?

Only one way to find out.

She sprinted faster, turned the corner, hurried into the bus terminal. Shoved past pedestrians. "Watch it!" "Hey!" Well, that was something from the old time. 

She stopped running, gasping for breath, tried to think. She could see the Crossbones sprinting up the road towards her. Just running wouldn't work. She had to lose them, how, how?

Think, Mew, think…Miyako was gone. Rudie brainpower needed now.

She ran for the bridge, then stopped. No skates now. You'll be trapped on there.

Think!

They were almost there. 

Mew turned and ran for the square, heard Suki yell, "There she is! Get her!" Geez, the girl sounded more like Onishima every day. Okay, now time it right, time it…

The Crossbones charged towards her.

She tensed to run…

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

Someone grabbed her arm. 

She turned to see a tall guy dressed in black, with sunglasses.

"Let go," she said. "I'm busy."

"I can't do that."

"Why?"

"You're coming with me."

"What the hell?"

He started dragging her. 

Mew opened her mouth. 

_"Get away from me, pervert!" _she screamed, and wrenched her arm free.

He began to run towards her.

Suki and the others dashed forward. 

Mew ran, breath sobbing in her throat, reached the stairs to the bridge. She started to climb, then one foot miscalculated, and she fell. She jumped to her feet, feeling blood warm on her knee, and carried on running – 

_Bang_

Mew swallowed as chips of stone flew off the bridge above her. The Crossbones? The dark guy? Did it matter?

"What did I do to deserve this?" she yelled to the sky.

She reached the top of the bridge. There was another bang, and she ducked, but not before she noticed Crossbones blocking the foot of each staircase, and the dark guy prowling towards her.

"Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit…" Mew heard herself whimper. "Okay, calm…"

She got up again, and forced her aching legs to keep running.

The dark guy was on the bridge now. 

_Bang_

Mew ran towards the end.

_Bang_

"Oh, shit…"

She was out of options. Desperately she stared down to the bottom of the staircase, where Suki was waiting, her eyes narrowed.

And he'd reached her.

"Help me!" Mew screamed. "Help! Help me –"

There was a thud on the back of her neck, and even as she carried on screaming the world went dark.


	11. Discovery

Chapter Eleven – Discovery

(Isas, Suki, Saburo – mine. Everyone else – not mine. Please r+r!)

Saburo breathed a sigh of relief as he entered the Skull HQ. He'd got the girl at last. No prison for him. 

She hung warm and heavy in his arms. He knew he should have killed her, but he wanted to see if he could use her to wake Cube up a bit. That girl was going very weird.

Now, where _was_ Cube?

Saburo deposited Mew on the floor, next to the table, and bound her wrists to one of its legs. It was bolted to the floor. She wouldn't be going anywhere.

And there was Cube, sitting on the bottom bunk bed. 

Shadows under her eyes. Hair like black thistles. A strange, unclear expression covering her lips.

She was whispering something.

"Cube-chan?" he said. 

She didn't answer. Just went on muttering.

He leaned in closer, to hear what she was saying.

"And together, we show you how to improvise…"

Slowly, off-track, like someone climbing a cliff.

"Cube?" 

"Reminiscent of the wild style, seventy-five…"

Saburo gritted his teeth. Geez, couldn't he have a partner who actually made sense once in a while? 

"Cos it's the brothers on the mike –"

"Cube, listen!" he yelled. 

She turned to look at him for a moment, then her eyes flicked back to inside her head, and she carried on speaking.

"Occupying the drum, take four MCs and make 'em sound like one…"

Saburo slapped her, feeling hot rage in his ribs. "Are you asleep or something? Shut up!"

She didn't. Just started to repeat it, faster: "Andtogether weshowyouhowto improvise –"

Saburo grabbed her shoulders and kissed her, and then wriggled on top of her. Keeping his lips on hers, he reached for her belt and unbuckled it. 

She may be out of her head, but the rest of her was still beautiful, he thought as he touched her. Lucky it was Garam who'd quit and not her. She was pale and bony and damp and she just let him do whatever he wanted.

She was struggling to turn her head away, trying to speak. He didn't want to let her, but he couldn't keep her lips locked forever.

"No…" she gasped. "No, please, stop it, no…"

He pretended not to hear.

She grasped at his wrists. "No!"

He stayed a few more minutes, came as he always did with her, then rolled off her and straightened his clothes. She'd curled up like a wounded beetle, she was crying, why did women always cry? 

And she was still saying that damn rhyme.

"And…and together, we show you how…how to improvise…"

Saburo swore under his breath, and rolled his eyes as he walked over to the fridge. Cursing when he found they'd run out of Coke, he decided to pop down to the store.

He glanced at the schoolgirl. She was kinda pretty too…her profile less strong, her features delicate. Maybe he could go with her before they finished her off. It might be fun.

Shrugging, he walked out of the HQ, Cube's voice following him.

"Take…four MCs…and…and make 'em sound…sound like one…"

***

Future Gum stood in the light with Yo-Yo. It was so quiet. Perfect. She was in the arms of the guy she loved, just him, her and the sunshine…

"Mmm…" she whispered. "This isn't happening, okay?"

"Of course it's not."

"I wonder where everyone else is?"

"Who cares…"

"Yeah…"

She bent her head towards his, and they kissed again.

***

Past Gum was still crying.

"We're gonna have to make a break for it," Beat said. "We can't stay down here forever."

Garam frowned. "No, but getting smushed by a train won't help any of us."

"Can't we call an ambulance or something?"

"Is it safe, though? If Onishima's found the passageway…"

Beat swallowed. Had he said anything about ambulances, about how rudies were vulnerable when they were in hospital? 

The memory of the conversation stayed locked in his mind, covered with midnight shadows and pain. 

"I don't know," he said. "But what else can we do? We got to get out of here, and she's got to get some help."

"Gum," Garam said. "Can you walk at all?"

Gum shrugged. "Garam, my leg feels really…really weird…I'm scared…"

"It's okay," Garam said, touching her hand. "You'll be fine."

A train rushed past, showering them all with dust and grit. When it finally passed, Garam got to his feet.

"Right," he said. "I'm going to get out of here and find some help. You stay with her."

Beat watched as he vanished into the darkness, then turned back to Gum.

"Gum?" he said. "Can you hear me?"

She nodded after a few seconds. 

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm really sorry."

"Why? What…what did you do?"

Beat opened his mouth to explain – then stopped. He couldn't tell her. Not now. It would be better to wait until she was okay. Yes. 

He'd got two of his friends shot now.

Oh, Future Gum was all right, but she wasn't the person he remembered. None of them were, obviously, he'd been gone for five years, what had he expected? But Past Gum – well, she was exactly the person he'd left. Literally. She hadn't changed at all, and that was the only comfort he had at the moment – 

And he'd got her shot.

He closed his eyes, tried to block out the white, strained figure lying in front of him. Garam had torn off one of her sleeves and used it to make a bandage, and it was slowly turning redder and redder.

"Beat, I…I feel really strange…" 

Gum's eyes rolled back in her skull, and she blacked out.

"Gum? Gum!"

He shook her. She didn't move. Her head flopped limply, her hair brushing the black ground.

Beat drew a deep, terrified breath. If Garam didn't get back soon, he wouldn't just be a traitor. He'd be a killer as well.

***

Mew groaned. She felt like shit.

She peeled her eyes open, expecting light to punch them, but this place – wherever it was – was dim enough for that not to happen.

She tried to sit up, but her hands wouldn't move.

"Ohh…what's happened?"

She could hear, dimly, the rattle of trains far away…

And a voice, broken with sobs. Slowly the sobs reformed in her ears to become words.

"And together…we show you how to improvise…"

"Who's there?" Mew called. Her head ached as her brain tried to process what she was seeing.

No reply. The voice carried on, "Reminiscent of…of the wild style, seventy-five…"

Her wrists were tied to a table leg. She was wearing her school uniform. Sun was streaming in from a small window high up on the wall. 

She'd seen that window somewhere before…

The Noise Tanks. She'd looked up at that window when she'd been a Noise Tank and she'd got sick of being down in the dark.

In the dark…

"Cos it's the brothers on the mike…occupying the drum…"

Now, though…I'm not a Noise Tank, she told herself, looking at her crumpled skirt and blouse, collar, her dusty patent shoes, the blood crusted on her knee.

"Take four MCs and make 'em sound like one…"

That voice.

"Cube?" she called.

The voice stopped. 

"Cube, it's me, Mew." She stared round the room. There were a pair of bunk beds against the wall. A figure was huddled on the bottom one, like a crushed bird.

"Mew's not here…" 

"I am here, Cube. Come and see."

The figure swung bare feet onto the ground, ducked out of the bed, and stood up. 

Mew swallowed. For the last few years she'd remembered Cube as she'd been the night she and Garam stormed out – eyes flickering with scorn, standing tall and angry, loud, shining. That had since mingled with the Cube she'd seen at Isas's house – horrified, but still competent, still agile and quick and violent…

This Cube was neither of them. She had her shoulders hunched as her chest rose and fell with sobs, and one hand pressed to her mouth. She still wore black, but it was untidy, and the skull on her chest was stained and grey.

If it wasn't for the face Mew wouldn't have thought it was the same girl.

"Cube?" she said. "What happened to you?"

Cube stared around, eyes big, making her own face look like a skull. "What – what – are you here? Is he?"

"I think we're on our own," Mew said. I sure hope… "Cube, could you untie me, please?"

"I can't. He'll be cross. There's the blood again."

"Cube?"

Cube's eyes were unfocused as she stared at Mew.

"I can't get away from it," she sobbed. "I didn't want to kill them all but I did and I'm going crazy and he keeps – he keeps – he keeps –"

She struggled for breath.

"Cube, you can come back with me," Mew said. "We can find the GGs or something. You don't have to stay doing this."

"We can leave?" Cube said slowly.

"Yeah, of course we can! You just need to untie me."

Cube stared at her, blinked. "Okay…"

She dropped down next to Mew and started picking at the ropes. 

"We can really get out?"

"We can really get out."

Cube smiled, properly, and untied the last knot. Mew struggled to her feet, rubbing her scraped wrists, and hurried towards the door.

Which flew open.

Saburo stood there.

"Well, would you look at that," he said. "Now the other Skull's gone renegade."

Mew could feel her mind locking into panic. 

Saburo leaned against the doorframe, watching them. Mew glanced over at Cube, who was trembling.

This isn't good, she thought as Saburo held up the gun.

"Why do you want me anyway?" she asked.

"You were a witness to the killing at the Miyamoto house."

"So? That was Cube, not you. And I wouldn't tell on her, whatever happened."

"Really?" Saburo said. "You know how much the cops hate Skulls now? You know how desperate they are to catch them? You know what they'd do to you to make you tell?"

"Oh, and like you're being any nicer to Cube," Mew shouted. "She's losing it, she needs to get out of here!"

"Oh, really? If she does she'll blab everything, she's not in control of herself –"

"Damn right she isn't!" Mew glanced over at Cube. She'd whitened, and her lips were moving.

"Cube!" she yelled. "Run!"

Cube's eyes widened. She stared from Mew to Saburo, trembling.

"Listen, schoolgirl, you're gonna die." Saburo marched towards Mew. "Accept it."

He raised the gun.

***

Combo skated down Bantam Street, wondering why he'd come here. He hadn't meant to. But he'd seen the sign to it…and the words had triggered memories, pictures of days where there were the three of them, Triple-C, and there had been no demons or killers or super-conglomerates or really, really bad fights…

He'd been avoiding Bantam Street. 

Until now.

And now he was having that 'wow, this place is still the same and I haven't been there for ages' feeling, mixed up with a whole load of guilt. He should have stopped Cube and now anything could've happened to her.

There was no news of any arrests yet, but it only had to be a matter of time. Which wasn't exactly a relaxing thought.

Combo stopped and leant on the fence surrounding the skate park. It was spooky looking at it. He'd spent most of his childhood down here, falling over, trying to keep his balance, slowly, painfully learning to grind and wall-ride and jump. 

Even the damn sunlight hadn't changed.

And Coin, first acting like he was too cool to skate, skipping school to do other stuff, but slowly getting interested in it and acting like he wasn't…

And Cube strolling in one day like she owned the place…

And his and Coin's jaws dropping…

And then a few good months in the sun…

And the Devil's Contract.

And going to Tokyo-to. 

And Cube, gone.

Her voice rang in his ears. 

_"I'm immature? I'm immature? Well, listen here, punk. Maybe you should damn well take some action more often. Maybe if you had, Coin would still be here right now!"_

"That's a lie and you know it!" he'd yelled at her, rage roaring through his head.

_"Oh, is it? Think about it! Who said we should go off to Tokyo-to? You! Who said we shouldn't try and track the Rhinos down in Grind City? You! Who pissed about fighting assassins rather than trying to save him –"_

"I didn't notice you makin' any objection to any of those things!"

"I was stupid, wasn't I? Well, now I'm smart, and I'm going to get them back for what they did to Beat and to Coin!"

"Get them back? You sound like a fuckin' five-year-old. Fine. You can just swan around in your pretty T-shirt with a skull on and your Goth face and your attitude problem. But I won't be there to see it. I quit!"

"That's great! Now I won't have to have you hanging around me like a – a gorilla! In fact, I'd rather have a gorilla! At least they know when to fight!"

And then he'd marched out the door, and that had been the last he'd seen of her. 

And the words still hurt and he never wanted to see her again.

What, never?

Well, hardly ever. 

Oh, all right, he did want to see her again.

So why don't you go back? You can keep a watch on her from Tokyo-to. Don't have to say hi or nothing. Just make sure she's okay. And if she was in trouble…well…you could help.

There was no point in hanging round old turf. Not now. Bantam Street was the past, left behind, Triple-C were gone. No matter how he tried, he couldn't go back. The sunlight was the same, but nothing else was.

The only thing left to do was go for the present.

***

Cube could hear too many things in her head. But overriding them all was Mew, "Run!"

A gun. 

A gun pointed at Mew.

She felt her lips begin to move, started to speak.

"And together…"

No! Mew was in trouble, she couldn't just sit there muttering!

Couldn't do anything…

The voices returned, leaving trails of smoke across her vision.

"What is it, Cube? Back to your little song?"

That voice left darkness as she heard it.

"Keep singing it. Soon you won't be singing at all. And nor will your friend."

Cube blinked, tried to clear the smoke from her vision. 

She could see him, standing in the doorway, dark, just looking at him made tears fill her eyes.

And Mew, silhouetted bright against the blackness…

"Run!"

Into the darkness?

"Cube! Go and get help!"

Help. Yes. They all needed that.

She forced herself to start walking.

"What is it, Cube? Gonna stop me? You're crazy. You can't do anything."

"Move it! Run!"

Cube stumbled past the darkness, looked back. Mew stood there, blazing white, surrounded by black.

She stopped – 

"Run!"

Get away from the darkness. Just go. Just _go._

Cube dashed along, feet catching on the rough ground. The cool air was caressing her skin, and she felt the sun start to wriggle into the black place in her brain. She stopped running when she got to the gate into Benten-cho residential area, and looked back. She couldn't see the white figure any more.

***

Past Gum lay asleep in the hospital bed, looking miserable.

Beat sighed. "They said she's okay."

Garam nodded. "Lucky they got to her in time…but don't worry. She's gonna be fine."

Beat tried to breathe a sigh of relief. It didn't work. His throat was too tight.

"I still want to know how they found out, though," Garam said.

Beat swallowed and focused on Gum's face. That didn't make him feel any better. She was too pale, almost as white as the pillow.

"Come on," Garam said. "You may as well admit it. Otherwise you're just going to sit here saying zilch."

"Admit what?" Beat managed to say.

"Onishima knocked it out of you. The garage and the passageway and everything." Garam's voice was calm, matter-of-fact.

Beat stayed still. Dread was starting to crawl over his skin like frozen ants.

"Come on," Garam said.

This is it, Beat thought. I am so dead now.

"Earth to Beat?" Garam said.

"Well, what do you want me to say?" Beat yelled. "Yeah, I did it. I betrayed the GGs. I know I suck as leader and as a rudie and as everything. So I don't think there's much more you can add. Go on, tell the others, and then kick me out, and – and just leave me alone!"

He heard his voice wobble, and swallowed. Not wanting to look at Garam, he stared at the metal frame of Gum's bed instead. It blurred. 

"That's why you've been acting so weird lately," Garam said. "Right?"

"Right."

"You're not beating – excuse the pun – yourself up about it, are you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"He broke your arm! I mean, I guess that's when it happened."

"Yeah. Sort of." In a way it was a relief to confess. It was like something loosening around his ribs.

"So you didn't exactly just tell him everything, did you?"

"I told. That's what matters."

Garam was silent for a moment, then said, "Are you going to say anything to the others?"

"No," Beat said before he could think. "No, I can't."

"They'll find out sooner or later."

"I won't let them."

"Why not? They won't desert you. They've missed you. We all have."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have. I'm done nothing I can be proud of. It was my fault I got caught in the first place and it was my fault Tab and Gum got shot and we lost the garage. So just shut up about it all."

"I…I killed a bunch of people," Garam said. "They know about that and they've not freaked. Much."

"That's different. You're still on the right side."

Garam sighed. "If you won't tell them, I will."

"No!"

"Sorry, but you can't go on jumping whenever anyone mentions certain things."

Before Beat could answer, Garam had walked away.

Beat stared after him, feeling like he'd been punched. He could feel his hands shaking. He'd missed the GGs so long and now they were going to hate him.

Part of him wanted to run after Garam and beg him not to tell, but he stopped himself. He hadn't sunk that low.

He rested his head in his hands, and closed his eyes.

***

Future Gum felt Yo-Yo ease her shirt off over her head, run his fingers through her hair.

"This'll just screw everything up…" she whispered.

"Yep. You want to stop?"

He kissed her again.

"No…"

She let him lie her down on top of the sleeping bag. The sun shot into her eyes, and she squeezed them shut, and he kissed her more, slid her jeans off, yes, yes, this was good, he was close to her – 

The door flew open, and Garam's voice said, "Guys, we have a – oh. Guys, hate to interrupt, but…"

Gum wanted to scream as Yo-Yo moved off her and straightened his clothes. "What is it?" she snapped.

"Well…your past self got shot. Beat's at the hospital. I think we should go."

Gum swallowed and reached for her top. "If – if she dies, will I?"

"She ain't gonna die," Garam said. "It's all right, they hit her in the leg. But we should go, okay?"

Gum glanced down at her own legs, and winced.

"Which leg?" she asked.

"The left."

Gum swung her legs up onto the sleeping bag and scrabbled for her jeans. She was just putting them on when she saw it.

A faint line was appearing on her left leg.

"Garam…" she said. "Where exactly did it hit?"

"The back of the shin."

"Shit."

"What is it?" Yo-Yo said.

"Look…" Gum pointed, hand shaking, to the mark rising up on her calf.

It was a scar. A scar which looked about five years old.

A scar which she'd never seen before.

"Woah." Yo-Yo's eyes widened. _"That _is seriously freaky."

"Thanks a bloody lot." Gum shoved her jeans on, trying to cover up the scar. "Great. She gets herself shot, and I have to suffer for it. Great."

She followed Garam and Yo-Yo out of the room. She could feel the scar on the back of her leg, pulsing. 

If she's changed this, what else could she change?

I wish she wasn't here. I wish she'd never come. I wish…I wish too many things.

And most of all I wish Garam had come in five minutes later.

That would have been enough.

Frustration growled at the back of her head.

***

Mew stared at Saburo, trying not to cry. Cube had got away, and that was good, but she didn't want to die…

Saburo pushed the door shut, slid across the bolt, and tucked his gun inside his jacket.

"You don't think I'd kill you right away, do you?" he said. 

"You let me go right now!" Mew yelled.

"Why?"

"Because you'll be in deep trouble if you don't!"

"I'm in deep trouble already, honey. I'm a Skull."

Mew clenched her fists. "Let me go."

Saburo walked over to her, stroked her shoulder. "I can't do that. I don't want to shoot you, you know."

"I don't want to be shot. Let's work together on this."

Saburo kissed her, his lips dry on hers. Mew struggled, desperately trying to twist her head away.

"Come on…" Saburo murmured. "You're cute enough, and I really want to."

"Well, I don't!" Mew tried to pull his arms off her, but he grabbed her wrist. 

"What is it with you girls?" he said, looking hurt. And kissed her again. His body was pressed against hers, warm and strong and she couldn't get away from it…

She broke free from him and screamed, heard the sound echo up to the roof of the HQ. "I mean it!" she yelled. "Get off! Just get off! Do you understand? Get off!"

And then she kneed him between the legs.

Saburo doubled over. Mew shook herself free, and ran to the door. She fumbled with the bolt, scraped it back just as Saburo found his gun and started firing wildly.

"Come back here, you bitch!" he yelled.

"Go fuck a snake!" Mew screamed, and ran.

***

Cube had been walking round the residential district for some time. She felt weird. She knew something was happening in her mind, but she couldn't see how to stop it. She was scared. Tears kept oozing out of her eyes and down her face.

Saburo would find her. He'd find her and he'd hurt her so bad for this…

But she deserved it, didn't she? Look what she'd done…

And, oh help, the blood was back, running slowly down the windows of the houses around her, pooling in deep black puddles on the steps, watering the pot plants, filling the sky with roaring crimson…

"Help me…" she called. "Somebody, please…"

No answer.

Cube dropped down onto somebody's doorstep, the blood oozing over her shoes, and cried.

***

The sky was growing darker outside the hospital window, brightening the strip lights and sending shadows rushing into the corners of the ward. 

Beat stared up at the night, and wondered if it was too late to run away.

They'd been at the hospital all afternoon. Past Gum had woken up, and now apart from a slight limp was fine. 

So now all the GGs were congregating at Tab's bed, goofing around, eating the junk food they'd smuggled in and generally chilling.

Well, sort of. Future Gum and Yo-Yo kept glancing at each other, then looking at the floor and giggling. Past Gum kept looking at them and then sighing. And Garam kept looking at Beat in a get-on-with-it way.

Just get up and say you've got something to tell everyone. It won't be that hard.

But he couldn't. Couldn't seem to stand, couldn't seem to speak. Couldn't do anything. Couldn't fight back, couldn't keep his mouth shut…

"Seems like it's safer in here than out there." Tab's voice broke into his thoughts. "Cops and Skulls and Crossbones everywhere…you guys better be careful."

"We'll be fine," Future Gum said.

"I wasn't," her past self muttered.

"Well, we're on our guard now, okay?"

"Are you saying I –"

"Please, no violence," Yo-Yo cut in. 

"Shut up, gummi bear!" Past Gum shot back at him.

Yo-Yo opened his mouth, then sighed and closed it again, and elbowed Future Gum as she started to speak. 

"They said you could come out soon, though, didn't they," Garam said to Tab.

"Yeah. Which'll be cool, I'm going stir-crazy here."

Beat could still feel Garam watching him. He pretended he hadn't noticed.

He had to do this sooner or later.

"Guys, we really have to go," Future Gum said, peering through the curtains round the bed. "I think the nurses are glaring at us."

Beat breathed a sigh of relief, which stuck in his throat as Garam said, "Yeah, okay. I just got something to tell everyone first."

"Talk fast," Future Gum said. "Or we may find ourselves the first people to get thrown out of Shibuya General."

"No, don't bother," Beat said. "We can go. I'm sure whatever it is can wait till next time."

"You know it can't," Garam said. "And everyone needs to hear this, Tab included."

"Garam, I said shut up!" Beat heard his voice rise. Future Gum made frantic keep-the-noise-down gestures.

"What is it?" Past Gum said. "Something else I don't know?"

"It's nothing you need to know," Beat said.

"Yes, it is!" Garam snapped. "It's about the garage getting found, it's about Tab being in here, it's about cops in the secret passage."

"I don't get it," Past Gum said. "The cops been bugging us or something?"

"They _always _bug us," Yo-Yo muttered. 

"You know what I mean!" Gum yelled, then glanced abruptly away from him.

"Someone told them, didn't they?" Tab said. "Some rudie's helped the cops with their enquiries. That's it, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Garam said. "One of us."

Beat stared at the ground, wishing he could run. But he couldn't even move. 

"What?" Past Gum said. "Are you crazy?"

"No."

"Who is it?" Tab said, voice sounding like it was balancing on a high wire. "Who?"

"It's Beat," Garam said.

"What?" Future Gum yelled. "Garam, are you nuts?"

"He said it himself."

"But – like – no way," Yo-Yo said. "You're not telling me Beat turned traitor?"

"Did you?" Past Gum asked.

Beat shrugged.

"Oh, come on, give us some answers!" Yo-Yo said. "You can't have Garam hit us with a curve ball like that and then just say no comment!"

"I don't have a comment," Beat said, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on the floor. 

"Is it true?" Future Gum asked.

"Yeah." The word left a bad taste in his mouth.

There was a stunned silence.

"You told Onishima everything?" Past Gum asked.

"I guess."

More silence. Really horrible silence. 

"Guys," Future Gum said at last, "I think the nurses are coming to evict us."

The GGs got to their feet, and began to walk away.

As Beat got up, he stared at Tab, who had picked up a magazine from the bedside table and was studying it fiercely.

"Tab?" he said.

Silence.

"Look, I, I didn't mean you to –"

"Whatever." Tab didn't look up. "Frankly, I don't really care any more."

Beat opened his mouth to argue, but he felt too drained to think up a sentence.

"You finished?" Tab said at last. "Only I got things to do. Things to think about."

"Bye."

Tab didn't answer as Beat walked away.

***

Combo stared out of the plane window. The sun had set, golden-orange light spilt across the dark blue sky. 

"We are now coming in to land at Tokyo-to airport. Please fasten your seatbelts and turn off all electrical appliances."

Combo listened as the message was repeated in Japanese. This felt almost like coming home, even though he'd left the place he'd thought was home…so what was his home? Ah, he needed more sleep. 

The plane started to dip. Combo swallowed as his ears rang, and gazed down at Tokyo-to, glittering in the darkness like a colony of luminous spiders. Cube was down there someplace.

How would he find her? Skulls didn't make themselves easy to find.

Well, he had to try. No point in coming all the way back here for nothing. 

The city was getting closer and closer, dots of light metamorphosing into cars and streetlamps, familiar buildings coming into view. There was the Rokkaku building, spitted with white windows, looming over Shibuya, and there was Benten, smothered with glitter, and Kogane, a dark, smouldering mass to the east.

Despite himself Combo felt warm at seeing it Good to be back with the old place again. 

Just the place?

Maybe the people too.

***

Mew lay against the wall, gasping for breath. She wasn't running any more. She was just terrified.

It was night now. Shibuya was the safest place to be. She knew she should head back home. Not home. Care. But she didn't want to. Isas knew her address, and if he knew, he'd pass it on. He didn't like her any more. He'd chased her with the others, hadn't he? 

They'd come – maybe at night – noises on the roof, or footsteps downstairs, and they'd shoot her. Suki would laugh. 

She was no damn way going back there.

_It's violating your probation…_

Fuck my probation. I'm more interested in staying alive.

Or that Skull guy. He wouldn't give up. Especially not now she'd kneed him. He seemed more professional than the Crossbones as well, and if he wanted her dead surely it would only be a matter of time?

"I don't want to die," Mew whispered to the night air.

"Mew?"

"Argh!" Mew spun round at the sound of Isas's voice.

"I won't hurt you," he said.

He was untidy, hair ruffled – Mew wanted to stroke it – Crossbones T-shirt replaced with a black one, eyes shadowed and filled with pain.

"Why the hell should I believe that?" Mew snarled.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Sure. Whatever. Rudie killer."

Isas winced.

"Anyway, aren't you supposed to be somewhere else?" Mew said. "With your family?"

"They left. My mum and dad. I told them I wanted to stay in Tokyo-to, I didn't want to change schools, you know."

"And?"

"They wouldn't let me. So I ran away."

Mew shrugged. She knew she should do the same, right now, but her legs weren't listening. They were going jelly-like as she looked at Isas.

Damn it, he was cute.

"To join the Crossbones?" she said, trying to sound scornful.

"Sort of. I didn't want to be pushed around. Mew," he said, "what are you doing out here?"

"Hanging. What about you? Where are you staying?"

"Suki's place."

"Why did you join the Crossbones?" Mew heard a sob rise up in her mouth, and swallowed. "How could you?"

"Your friend would have killed my parents."

"You would have killed me."

"I wouldn't. Mew, you've got to believe me, I wouldn't."

"Sure. The gun is just the latest fashion accessory."

"I'm quitting," Isas said. "I walked out of the meeting tonight."

"Whatever." Don't believe him, don't listen to him, and stop thinking about how gorgeous he looks!

"Mew, I want to make it up to you. I – I just didn't think, okay? I wanted to hurt someone. I wanted to show I'm not just a dumb schoolboy."

"You joined a club that specialises in killing people like me."

"Your friend joined a club that specialises in killing people like _me."_

They stared at each other. The night air stroked Mew's face and rippled Isas's hair.

"Suki's a Keisatsu's child," Isas said. "Like me. The other two are her best friend and this boy who got beaten up by some rudies in Kogane-cho."

Mew shrugged. "My friends joined because the cops arrested someone we cared about."

"Why aren't you at home, Mew?"

"I'm not going anywhere you Crossbone freaks know about."

"But it's getting dark."

"So? I'm Benten-cho born and bred. I like the dark. And it's a summer night, it's not too cold."

"You can't stay out here for the rest of your life."

"I simply intend to _have _a life."

"Who was the guy who caught you?" Isas asked, and he looked worried.

"A Skull."

"The Skulls are after you too?"

"Yeah. Peachy, isn't it."

"You _really _shouldn't be out here."

"Isas, just leave me alone."

"Look, come back with me."

"To Suki's house? I don't think so."

"I mean to my old house. My family's house. I've got a spare key."

"No way. No, no, no. This is an ambush."

"It's not!" Isas cried out. "I just want you to be safe! If the Skulls are after you they'll be prowling the streets and you can't run from them forever."

Mew swallowed. "But if this is a trap and I go back with you, I'll be dead anyway."

"It's not a trap," Isas said. "What can I say to convince you?"

Mew stared at him, and suddenly she couldn't bring herself to keep objecting.

"Okay, fine," she said. "I may as well die for being a rudie rather than being a schoolgirl witness."

"Is that why they want you?"

Mew nodded as they began to walk along to the Kogane-Shibuya border.

Isas touched her arm. "Mew, I never wanted to hurt you."

"Then why –"

"I've tried to explain. I know I was dumb, but…it just seemed a good idea at the time."

Mew wanted to pull away from him, but his hand was heating up her skin like she was about to spontaneously combust.

"They'll probably have me arrested again anyway," she said. "I'm doing the equivalent of jumping bail here."

"Why don't you tell 'em what's going on?"

"Because if I tell them about the Skulls, they'll make me spill the beans about Cube, and if I tell them about the Crossbones…well…I don't think I'll get much sympathy for being a rudie."

"But you could die."

Mew shrugged, trying to cover her trembling. "Rudies do, generally." She stopped, turned to face him. "I don't like the idea, but you know what the Keisatsu do to us. Guess it'll only be a matter of time."

Isas whitened at that. "Don't."

"It's the truth."

"Why do you do it, then?"

"For the same reason you keep posters of tags in your room and read about them on the bus. It's what I like doing."

She stared up at him, remembered seeing his posters, an event which seemed ancient, faded, normal. 

Then they'd come down…and Cube had been there…and everything had gone crazy.

She shuddered. And now everyone was trying to kill her.

"It's okay," Isas said. "I won't let them hurt you – I –"

He stopped. They were almost touching. 

"I know you won't," Mew said, and even as her mind snorted, she smiled.

She stepped a little closer.

He moved nearer to her.

And then somehow they were kissing. Mew clung onto his shoulders, feeling fireworks explode throughout her body.

"Let's get home," Isas said at last, trying to catch his breath.

"Let's." Mew grinned, unable to stop herself. The ex-rudie and the Keisatsu's child.

How cool was that?


	12. Breaking

Chapter Twelve – Breaking

Future Gum looked round the room, and sighed. Talk about awkward silences.

Yo-Yo was for some reason avoiding her, and was sitting drumming out an annoying tune on the wall. Garam was on the computer again, blowing something up. Past Gum was lurking outside in the corridor, crying by the look of it. And Beat was sitting by the window, staring out into the night.

Gum wasn't sure whom she wanted to shake more. Garam, for blabbing out the secret, or Beat, for talking to Onishima. 

She knew they didn't exactly give you red-carpet treatment in jail. But to have actually told the cops where your hideout was…and at least one of your major escape routes…and whatever else he'd said. She was angry with him! He could have tried to stand up for himself. 

Nasty words were hissing in the back of her mind, words she was trying not to hear. _Coward. Traitor. Wimp._

You could hurt with those words.

She didn't want to talk to him. On the one hand he looked so miserable, and she'd heard how Tab had frozen him out. But the frustration smouldering in her ribs might flare up…and she might scream at him and tell him exactly what she thought. Let the words out. And that would be cruel. 

She was holding Onishima's notebook, and now she opened it and found where she'd got to before. May as well start a little light reading. She'd got to the 24th September…

The entries were more frequent now.

_But there's got to be something I can do. Something permanent. Something that'll get them all away, something they can't escape from, something that'll bring her back? No – no – nothing can do that. Don't be dumb. Just focus on really hurting 'em._

C told me they might have something. That'd be nice. K won't help, thinks I'm being unprofessional. What was it he said? Something really dumb…oh yeah. "Our duty is not to hurt but to heal. The police force is here to improve life for people, not to destroy it." What the hell is he on? 

Besides, rudies ain't people. No one's people who do things like that.

They're still developing it. But if they can do it they could help me, C says. If. 

She said she won't do it! Not the rudies, I mean. She'll still hurt them, and that's good but she won't help me. Won't bring her back. She could. She said she could. But she won't. Said it wouldn't be right. I told her if it came to that how was it right to wipe out a bunch of rudies? She just looked at me and said 'this is for the good of the city.' 

Gum swallowed, and looked at the writing again. Yes. It did say _'wipe out a bunch of rudies.' _It was dated 20th December, 2002.

Okay, calm. Maybe it was just talking about tanks or guns or something. Something they all knew about.

She turned back to the notebook, not sure she wanted to read on, but unable to stop.

_I haven't thought about her for ages. Tried not to. Christmas is bringing it all back. It was round then it happened. She didn't want presents, or food, or nothing, just stayed in her room. And then – then –_

The pen dipped wildly off the line, as though Onishima had been unable to form the next word. The rest of the page was blank, and then the writing started again.

It was January, 2004, before Gum found any new developments.

__

They've done it. C called me last night, she sounded deadbeat but she's done it. They've done it. I could get rid of every damn rudie on the planet if I wanted – all you need is five minutes, C says. 

She still won't bring her back. But I won't think about that any more. Revenge is as good as a feast, or something like that. 

They still bug me. No. They still drive me crazy. But now, now at last I can really hurt them back. No – I can get rid of them altogether. I have to keep telling myself that. Sometimes it's hard to stay in control. And I have to. So, if I just remember I've got the power now. Then maybe it'll all be okay. Maybe I'll stop hurting too.

What? Gum shook the notebook, the words blurred in front of her eyes. What's he done? What's he got?

She read further…and further…until at last she'd got to the present. August, 2005. 

The last entry was the day she'd taken the book.

_So now all we need is a willing volunteer or two. Or ten. C said we need a group, so we can monitor all possible side-effects. She still makes like she's doing this for science. Yeah, right. _

So I could just pick ten rudies from the cells and send 'em to her. But – I don't know – this is sort of symbolic. Seems like it shouldn't just be a random choice. I mean, on the testing they used street punks I provided, and I don't know what happened to them. But this is different. 

Because we all know who really gets to me. We all know who made the Keisatsu look stupid by saving the world from that psycho Goji. We all know who was the strongest gang in Tokyo-to.

"Yes," Gum whispered. "We all know."

__

If I can track them all down…

Oh, boy, that would be revenge all right.

If I can get that punk kid to start talking at last…

He's the leader, I've seen him, heard things. He knows enough. And then they'd be gone, gone at last…oh, geez, that would be sweet. And they'd never be able to come back. Never.

Never.

The rest of the book was blank.

Gum put it down very carefully, hands shaking. 

***

Cube had wriggled back into the space between two buildings, too small to be called an alleyway, and stayed curled up there as night fell.

Now she was hovering between sleep and wakefulness, aching, shivering, not daring to open her eyes in case she saw…saw something. 

But dreaming wasn't much fun either. Her skin was damp with sweat, spilt in terror from her nightmares. 

No one had come near her. Maybe they thought she was a homeless person.

Well, she was. 

The thoughts were peeled slowly and painfully off her mind. It was hard to make coherent sentences, because her brain felt like a swamp of feelings and memories and it was too hard to drag words from that.

If only it was a cold night. Then she could go to sleep and never wake up. But it was summer. Damn summer.

She rested her head back on her knees. Living was too hard at the moment. Slowly, she started to chant Improvise under her breath.

Maybe if she chanted it enough, he'd be there at last. Like a spell.

But the night wore on, and nobody came.

***

Isas unlocked his front door, and Mew followed him into the dark house. The yellow hallway was faded now, and the coat rack was empty.

Isas sighed. "You want anything to eat? There might be something in the larder."

"No, it's okay." She felt too full of feelings – love – fear – to eat. "Let's go upstairs. I'm nervous down here."

Isas nodded, and she followed him up to his bedroom. 

Her mind wolf-whistled.

Stop it, she thought. I'm not going to do anything. 

Aren't you, Mew? 

No. I'm not.

They'd reached it now. Isas pushed open the door, and they walked inside. 

Moonlight drifted through the window, catching dust in its beam, touching the posters and the schoolbooks piled on the desk and the chocolate wrappers and old teacups speckling the floor. Mew felt fear in her throat. A boy's room. A boy who killed.

He's quit. He said he'd quit.

Isas grinned at her, nervously, and she hugged him. For a moment she just stood there, resting her head on the curve of his shoulder, breathing him in. He was touching her back, hands fumbling on her shirt.

"I don't – I don't know what's happening," he said. "Everything's just gone so crazy lately."

"I know what you mean." Mew kissed his neck, where his skin was smooth. They stumbled back and dropped onto the bed, and Mew moved away from him, sprawled herself across the covers.

He was right. Everything was crazy. Everything was psychotic. So why did she feel safe?

Isas reached out, gripped her hand, and she rolled nearer to him.

The room was grey in the darkness. 

"Don't get killed, Mew, please," Isas said.

"Same to you."

He reached out, touched her hair, his fingers gentle on her brow as he stroked it. 

"You realise this probably won't last," Mew said. "I mean, one of us will get shot or something…or I'll be arrested…or you might be."

"Don't worry about that," he said. "Just live for the moment."

"I'm a rudie. I know all about living for the moment."

She closed her eyes, and smiled.

She must have dozed off, because there was no other way she could have been suddenly transported back to her arrest…hair tangled, catching in her mouth…eye ringing with pain…nose bleeding onto her dress, and she was unable to stop it because her hands were cuffed behind her…

Self-respect shrivelled inside her as she felt herself begin to cry.

"Mew?"

Dreaming or awake?

"Come on, Mew."

She blinked, and Isas was gazing at her. 

"It's okay," he said.

The moonlight had moved a bit. The clock hadn't changed, but then it hadn't all night – flickering on and off, _6:58, 6:58. _

"Sorry." Mew wriggled into a sitting position and rubbed away her tears.

He opened his mouth.

Don't talk about it. Not the nightmare, Isas, please – she quickly said, "Are you gonna go back to school?"

Isas shrugged. "They said one more slip-up and I'm for it."

"Just like me. So if you don't go in tomorrow, you're expelled?"

He nodded. 

"Maybe you should go. Don't spoil your record for me. I mean, you don't get into college your parents'll freak." Mew remembered her own experiences with that, and swallowed.

"I have a reputation now," Isas said. "I'm a kid who plays with guns. Soon I'll be classified as mentally unstable, and I won't be able to get into college or anything even if I do finish school."

"Well, I'm gonna fail my exams, and I don't think they'll want a rudie drop-out."

"We can quit education together."

Mew grinned. "Live on an island."

"Catch fish."

"Wear…uhh…deer skin."

"Or maybe we'll end up in a high-rise flat."

"With a bunch of kids?" Mew put on a horrified face.

"Yeah, and you can teach them all to be rudies."

"Yes! We'll repopulate the rudie world!" Mew giggled. "We'll be a fricking rudie factory!"

"Sounds good to me. What about pets?"

"A dog." Mew grinned. "The GGs had a dog. I – oh, my lord, I don't know what happened to him! After Beat vanished he got all gloomy…he escaped and ran out one night…"

"We'll find him," Isas said. "What's he like?"

"He's blue," Mew said. "And he thinks he's a cow."

She started to laugh, and her laughter turned into tears somewhere, and she sobbed into Isas's chest. "Sorry…oh, man…we forgot about Potts, I can't believe that…I just wish I had them all back, the GGs, I mean…"

She held onto Isas, feeling the shape of his muscles under his skin, and found herself breathless. Resting her chin on his shoulder, she stared up at the Gundam Wing poster tinted grey behind them.

A black dot appeared on top of Duo's face. A millisecond later she heard the bang.

Isas tensed.

"Looks like the lovebirds have found themselves a cage."

***

Combo walked down through Benten-cho's residential area, feeling worried. The garage had had cops in it. No sign of the GGs. Had they all got caught?

Please no.

Cube wouldn't be there if she was still a Skull, she'd be safe, okay?

He swallowed. Suddenly he was feeling very alone.

He wouldn't tell Cube he'd been glancing at the faces of all the dark-haired girls he'd seen since getting back to Tokyo-to. She'd laugh. 

Or roll her eyes and ask him why he'd bothered.

Combo sighed and leant against the wall, letting his bag rest at his feet, and wondered why he _had _bothered. It wasn't like he could just go up to the Skulls and ask them where Cube was.

He switched off Jet Set Radio. It was playing Up-set Attack, which was too perky for his mood tonight. He could hear another radio somewhere now, and hey – his favourite song.

"And together, we show you how to improvise…"

No – it wasn't the song. Someone was chanting it, their voice shaking.

Oh, geez, he was even hearing her everywhere now.

This girl sure sounded like her though.

As she got to the last line – "Take four MCs –" he spoke out.

"– and make 'em sound like one."

The voice stopped. 

"Hey, I'm sorry," Combo said. "Carry on if you want, kid."

"Combo?"

No way, his mind said. No way. No way.

He licked his lips nervously.

"Cube?"

There was a rustling from the gap between the walls, and a figure stood up and stepped out to face him.

It was her.

He reached out a hand to her, and she took it, palm shaking, and then she rushed forward and threw herself into his arms, sobbing.

"Cube, what is with you?" he said. "What the hell happened?"

She was crying too hard to speak. He'd never seen her that sad before. Not even after Coin was proven dead. And it scared him.

She felt brittle in his arms, and she'd never felt that weak before. Indeed, she'd always put him in mind of a python. Incredibly strong and flexible, with violent overtones…

Now she felt like a python skeleton maybe. Like she'd snap if he touched her too hard.

Eventually she stumbled back, face red with tears, and said, "I'm hallucinating again aren't I? You're not Combo you're just some bastard taking advantage just like – just like –"

"Of course it's me," Combo said. "Geez, kid, you don't recognise me? What's happened? Are you – are you still with the Skulls?"

"I ran away this morning. He was going to kill me."

"Who? Garam?"

"No. Garam already left. No. The other guy." She drew a deep, shuddering breath. "I keep seeing all this weird shit and I'm so scared…"

"It's okay. You're just under stress."

Cube wriggled up next to him again. He tried not to notice how her hips ran gently outwards, pressing against her scuffed jeans.

"You can't really be here," Cube said. "That's just too lucky. I don't deserve luck. Maybe. They all hate me anyway. I killed them all, you know."

Combo stared at her, frightened now. She sounded so – odd. 

"I'm here now," he said. "You got anywhere to go tonight?"

"No. Not the Skulls. I don't – I won't –"

"It's okay, we don't have to go there. Okay, do you know where the other GGs are?"

Cube shrugged. "The garage?"

"No. That's empty."

"Then I don't."

"We'd better find a hotel or something, then."

Cube blinked, her eyes shiny like drops of oil. "You got money?"

"Been saving. I got work in Grind City."

She shrugged. "Is it nice there?"

"It's the same as it always is. I missed you."

She smiled, properly, lighting up her face, and they set off to find somewhere to stay.

***

"Guys."

Beat turned to look at Future Gum, who had got to her feet, clutching a battered notebook.

"What?" Garam asked.

"I think we should be worried."

"What have you read?" Yo-Yo asked. "That's Onishima's Secret Diary, right?"

"I guess so. And, um, it mentions us."

So that was what Onishima had meant when he'd said Gum had stolen his notebook. Beat sighed and rested his head on his knees. He could see Gum trying not to catch his eye.

"What does it say?" Past Gum asked.

Future Gum began to read out the notebook entry. When she'd finished, there was a thoughtful silence.

"So Onishima's teamed up with some science chick and they're developing some strange weapon and he wants to test it on us?" Yo-Yo said at last.

"That sounds about right."

"Shit."

"Beat," Garam said, "what did you tell him about the other GGs?"

Beat swallowed. "Piranha and Slate left and they've got a child…Mew was arrested…Combo's in Grind City…Cube's in the Skulls."

"Are you sure that's all?"

"Yes." Stop looking at me, Beat thought. Just leave me alone.

"So we can assume Cube's probably as safe as she ever would be, right?" Garam said. He sounded slightly nervous.

"Yeah," Past Gum said. "Mew probably isn't…but it sounds like he needs all of us. Combo?"

"Dunno." Garam shrugged. "How easy is it to find a rudie in Grind City? Especially if you're a cop?"

"It's not easy, that's what," Yo-Yo said. "Might be impossible. What about Piranha and Slate?"

"You told him their names?" Future Gum said, not looking at Beat but focusing on the window instead.

"Yeah."

"If they're still using them…"

"But they're not rudies any more," Past Gum said. "Wouldn't they go back to using their old names? Or pick new ones?"

"Someone had better go find 'em," Yo-Yo said. "Warn 'em."

"To do what? Avoid cops?" Past Gum scowled. "They'd do that anyway."

"Well, someone's got to tell them Onishima seems even more insane than usual," Future Gum said. 

"Okay, then," Garam said at last. "Gum, Past Gum, you go tomorrow."

"Did they leave an address?" Past Gum asked.

"Yeah, in Kogane-cho."

"Okay, then," Garam said. "Tell them everything, and if they want to relocate, let them."

"What about Mew?" Future Gum asked.

"If we were sure she was there…" Garam said. "It's just, if Beat and Gum didn't see her, it's kinda risky going to spring her out. I mean, we got no idea where she is in the building. Was there anything about her in Onishima's notebook?" he asked Future Gum, who shook her head.

"Okay, cool," Yo-Yo said. "The Gums go to find the family guys, we hope Mew sprung herself out, Combo's safe and Cube's too dangerous to touch."

"That's about it," Garam said. "Maybe those things'll stop Onishima. Whatever he's planning."

***

Mew wriggled off Isas and turned to face the intruder.

She wasn't particularly surprised to see that it was Suki.

But that meant…

"Isas…" Mew stared at him. He'd betrayed her…

"No. _No,_ Mew." He was as pale as she felt. "She's followed us. I think. She has to have…"

"Yeah," Suki said. "When you walked out of the meeting, I wondered if you were sick or _love_sick." She spat out the word. "Looks like I was right to wonder. I figured you might come back here, you've got nowhere else to go."

"And now what?" Isas said. He was gripping Mew's hand, painfully, but his voice was steady. "Anything you wanted to say?"

"Just this. Die, traitor."

"Don't you touch him," Mew snarled.

"I'll do what I want with him," Suki said, and snickered. "Haven't you?"

She stepped to the side, and the other two Crossbones filed in and grabbed hold of Isas.

"Don't run," Suki said, glaring at Mew. "I'll kill him at once if you run."

"You're a bitch," Mew said, anger catching in her throat. "You're a bitch who thinks she's Rambo. Just what is your damn problem?"

"With who?"

"Rudies."

"I don't like them, that's all." Suki's eyes remained carefully blank. "The guys are thugs and the girls…well, I saw what you were doing with Isas."

"Call me a whore if you want," Mew said. "At least I have a guy."

"Isas has been staying at my house for, like, three days," Suki said. "What do you think we were doing all that time? Scrabble?"

Don't react, don't react…Mew whispered it in her mind. "Whatever," she said. "He's with me now."

Suki slapped her so hard she fell.

Mew rubbed her stinging skin, and said, "Oh, that's supposed to hurt me, is it?"

"I can hurt you, rudie," Suki said. "I can hurt you real bad."

She nodded to the other two Crossbones. The girl took out a flick knife, the boy a pistol. Suki turned back to face Mew. "See?"

She walked over to Isas. "I'm sorry," she said to him, "I like you. Honest. But I hate Little Miss Rebel over there, and seeing you die because of her will really make her cry."

"You keep away from him!" Mew screamed. "You keep away from him or I'll kill you!"

"I don't think so." Suki's face gleamed in the grey light, taut with fury. "Watch carefully, Miyako. He dies and it's all your fault."

Mew leapt off the bed and ran towards Suki, who spun and drove a fist into her stomach. Mew doubled over onto the floor, sobbing out breath, trying not to retch. 

Suki dropped down next to her and gripped her wrists. "Don't bother trying to stop me. You can't."

She nodded to the girl Crossbone, who let go of Isas and walked over to them. Mew struggled to break free, then there was a click and she saw that the girl had put handcuffs on her, securing her to the leg of Isas's bed.

"Let me go," she gasped, her ribs locking with fear. "Let me go…"

"Why should I? Rudies belong in jail."

"Stop it!" Isas yelled, trying to shake off the guy holding him. "Just leave her alone!"

"Make me, traitor," Suki said, and raised the gun, aiming at his stomach. Mew fought down the fear and the memories and strained against the cuffs until they scraped her skin. Isas closed his eyes.

The phone rang downstairs.

For a moment, all five were silent, then Suki said, "Come on, sweetie. Let's take you to answer it."

She and the guy marched Isas out of the room, and Mew heard them walk down the stairs. She took deep breaths, breathing in the smell of carpet and dust, trying not to think about what was going on. 

"What's with your friend?" she said to the girl Crossbone, who was sitting on the bed, holding the knife still.

"Suki's just smart."

"Smart? She's bloody psycho!"

"She has her reasons to be."

"And you? You got a sob story as well?"

"I'm her friend. I stick up for her, help her out. And besides, I agree with her. You rudies hurt her and her family bad. You deserve everything you get."

"And Isas?"

"If he's letting you stick your tongue down his throat, he's dumber than I thought. Besides, he's a traitor."

"To who?"

"Us. And his family."

Mew was about to reply when she heard footsteps, and looked round to see the other three walk back inside.

Suki was smirking.

"This is sweet," she said. "Tell her, Isas."

Isas licked his lips. One of them was bleeding. "Mew," he said, "that was your – uh – social workers. They're looking for you."

"Why? Cos I didn't come home?"

"That too."

"Oh, go on, Isas, tell her," Suki said. "I mean, this will save her life. Don't know about yours, of course."

"They want you down at the station," Isas said. "Police Chief Onishima wants to see you."

***

Combo unlocked the hotel room door, and he and Cube walked inside. 

It was the tiniest, cheapest, seediest place he'd ever stayed in. But it was all he could afford for tonight. 

Cube stared at it, blinking in the flickering strip light, looking like a fox caught in car headlamps.

"This is okay, right?" Combo said to her.

She nodded, slowly.

He badly wanted to ask her what had happened, but he contented himself with saying, "You can talk if you want. Or sleep. Or anything."

She shrugged. "I – I want to have a shower? Please? Can I?"

"Sure. Go ahead."

She should have demanded a shower, and pushed past him to commandeer the bathroom. 

He watched as she walked inside, closed the door, and a few moments later he heard the water running.

Okay. Do not think about what she looks like in the shower. That's the last thing she needs.

His mind wasn't really listening.

He told it to stop goofing around, sat down on one of the beds, and tried to think what to do next. So he'd found Cube. But the other GGs…

Well, he could look for them in the morning. 

Eventually the bathroom door swung open, and Cube tiptoed out, wrapped in a moth-eaten towel, her hair dripping.

"Combo…have you got anything I could wear? I mean, just for tonight?"

"You can have my spare T-shirt if you want." Combo knelt down and started opening his bag, trying not to look at her smooth damp shoulders, and ribs, and legs, and…

"Here." He handed her an identical green T-shirt to the one he was wearing. Cube smiled, nervously, and slunk back to the bathroom.

Combo massaged his temples and tried to think about baseball.

Cube crept out of the bathroom again, wearing his T-shirt like a dress. The collar was slipping down, exposing one of her shoulders, and her legs were bare from below the knees.

Legs you've known about for, like, seven years, Combo told himself. Totally uninteresting legs. Stop thinking about her like that, she don't need it…

Okay, okay. But I can look, right?

Cube stumbled over to the other bed, dropped down on it and flung the blanket over her. She lay quite still, watching the ceiling, and then gave a low, miserable sigh.

"What is it?" Combo asked.

"There's blood again."

Combo glanced at the ceiling. It stared back at him, yellow-white and warm and speckled with mildew stains.

"Where?"

"I'm the only one who can see it," Cube said. "All the people I killed."

Combo swallowed. This was the bit he really didn't want to think about.

"You did kill, then."

She nodded. "I'm angry. Was. First they took Coin away…and then they took Beat away, and then…and then they took…"

She turned away from him.

"Who did they take?" Combo asked.

She muttered something. 

"What?"

"Then they took you."

Combo restrained his mind, which was punching the air ("Yes! Yes! You matter to her!") and said, "Well, I'm back now. I'm here."

"I wish I hadn't done it," Cube said.

"I wish you hadn't too." He tried not to sound mad with her. 

"Cube," he asked at last, "why did you leave the Skulls?"

Silence. Then she got out of bed, and turned off the light. Combo saw her silhouette climb back in, dark against the sheets. Great. So he'd said too much.

But then she said, "I don't want to tell. I want to lock it all up in my mind and then hide it so I never have to see it again. But it won't hide, will it?"

"Probably not."

"Garam left," Cube said. "He left and he left me all on my own. Saburo was there, though."

And suddenly she sounded okay again as she said, "He was the other member of our team."

"Yeah?"

"Mew saw me try to kill someone."

"Mew?"

"Yeah…in school uniform…in a Keisatsu house…I guess she quit."

"And?"

"Saburo captured her. And she saved me she got me to run…" The sentence stumbled out.

"And you hung around in Benten-cho?"

"And you found me, yeah."

"Why did you run, though?"

He saw Cube's figure tense. 

"Saburo," she said. "I cheated on Garam with him. Garam left me."

"Yeah," Combo said. 

"I didn't know if I wanted to. He slept with me and I didn't say no. And then Mew was there…"

"Yeah?" He tried to make sense of this.

"And I was frightened…and he just came and I told him no and he didn't listen he just was on me and I didn't want him inside me I wanted him to stay out –"

Her voice cut off with a sharp gasp.

"Cube," Combo said, feeling rage to start to blink awake inside him, "you saying this Saburo guy –"

She sat up.

"He – he –" She was breathing faster now, hands gripping the blanket. "Yeah, he…"

She gazed at him, and her face was so pale he wondered if she was gonna faint.

"He raped me – oh –"

She pressed a hand to her mouth, jumped out of bed, and ran into the bathroom. Combo hurried after her, and heard her retching. He held her head until she'd finished, her skin smooth under his fingers. She straightened up at last, grabbed one of the cracked plastic cups on the bathroom shelf, and gulped down some water.

"Oh, Cube…" He couldn't think what else to say. 

"I feel like shit," Cube muttered. "I hate him and I'm stupid, evil, disgusting…" She rubbed her hands over her face, like a shudder, and then closed her eyes, and she was crying again.

"No. You're not."

"I killed them, didn't I?"

"Sure. And it's nothin' to be proud of. But you ran away. And you've been through all this and, and, no matter what you did I'm just…I'm just glad you're here."

"Really?"

"Cross my heart, kid."

Cube hugged him. He could feel her breasts through the T-shirt, her shape curving under his hands. 

And maybe he did just hold on a little too long.

"No – no get away from me –" Cube's voice cracked with hysteria.

Combo snatched his hands away as if she burnt them. "What? What is it?"

"Is that why you're pleased to see me?" Cube said. "So you can fuck me as well?"

"No!"

"I don't want anyone near me!" she screamed. "Get away! _Get away!"_

She ran back into the other room, scrabbled into bed, and yelled, "If you come near me, or, or _do _anything…anything – I will kill you, I mean it! I mean it!"

"I won't touch you if you don't want me to," Combo said, trying to keep his voice very calm.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Cube stared at him a few moments, then lay down and pulled the covers over herself, cocooning her into a miserable lump.

Combo started to take off his skates. When he'd done that, he lay down on the other bed, and stared at the bloodless ceiling.

Great. Just great. You're supposed to be her friend and you act just as low as dat other guy did. 

What could he do? She was messed up, and he didn't know how to solve it, especially as he had his hormones to contend with. 

She was broken, and he had a horrible feeling he'd just wrecked her even more.


	13. Lost

Chapter Thirteen – Lost

Past Gum and Future Gum walked through Kogane residential area at seven a.m. the next morning. Past Gum wasn't particularly happy at how early it was, but she sure wasn't going to admit it.

"You got the address?" she said to Future Gum.

"Yeah."

"Is there anything I should know about Piranha and Slate? That you forgot to tell me?"

"No."

Gum sighed, and glanced over the rooftops to the huge sky. The sun was rising, and white-yellow light spilled over the balconies of cloud filling the morning sky. The rooftops glinted.

"Cool," she said at the same time as Future Gum did.

They both glanced at each other, and then smiled.

"How are you gonna get home?" Future Gum asked at last. 

Gum shrugged. "Hope I get lucky?"

"Look," her future self said. "I don't think this was random, you getting bumped into the future like this. I think it happened for a reason, I think you're gonna change things for us. All of us."

"How'm I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know. But no one's happy, are they? In my present? Wherever they are, I don't believe they're happy. Maybe if you do stop Beat getting caught, that'll put some things right. But I think it's gonna work out, okay? I don't think you're stuck here. You can't be."

"Thanks." That had been exactly what Gum had been wondering herself – stuck, whether she was.

Future Gum stopped outside a rickety-looking block of flats. "This is it. We want the third floor."

They walked inside. The walls were the colour of mustard, and the whole place stank.

"Eeeuw," Gum said. "Maybe they'll be more keen to get out than I thought. What day is it today, by the way?"

"Saturday."

"So the kid should be at home."

Both Gums glanced at each other. 

"I don't do children," Future Gum said.

"Me neither."

They started to climb the stairs.

Finally they reached the right apartment. Past Gum knocked, and the sound echoed round the bare corridor.

Footsteps, then a voice from behind the door said, "Who is it?"

"Piranha? Is that you?"

Silence for a moment, then, "Yes…"

"It's Gum."

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Okay…"

Gum heard the rattle of bolts, and then the door opened.

Piranha peered round it, and her eyes widened as she took in the two Gums. "What the hell?"

"Long story. Can we come in?"

"I guess so," Piranha said, opening the door a little wider.

They walked into the uncarpeted hallway. Past Gum noticed the walls were covered with tags. Familiar looking tags.

Piranha noticed her looking, and said, "It's a cheap decorating service, right? Look, what is going on? Why are there two Gums?"

As Future Gum began to explain everything, Past Gum studied Piranha. The GG still had her hair in dreadlocks, but she was wearing a black top and trousers decorated with purple stars, and she no longer had skates or goggles. And she looked older. Properly older.

Five years really had passed.

Gum shivered. She had hopped forward five years…she'd missed out five years…oh, lord…

You'll get back. Future Gum says you will. 

She's me and I've hopped forward five years…

"That is the most crazy story I've ever heard," Piranha said at last. "If it's a joke, it ain't that funny. Why're you here?"

"Um. Well. You tell her, Past Gum."

Gum jumped, shook herself out of her fears, and said, "We were wondering if you'd be interested in a rudie reunion."

"I'm not a rudie any more. I've got a daughter."

"Look, you don't have to join us," Future Gum said. "But I said Onishima's planning something. What names are you guys working under now?"

"Our old ones. Birth names, as it were. When we're not Mummy and Daddy, that is."

"So he mightn't find you that way." Future Gum's eyes narrowed. "You ever do anything rudieish? Your kid know about what you used to be?"

Piranha shrugged. "We tag at home. Slate's been selling some tag posters to second-hand shops, to get some extra cash. And we still skate a bit, but only up and down the corridors." She laughed. "Okay, that sounds dumb. But if we got arrested…"

"Exactly," Past Gum said. "But does your daughter know?"

"We haven't really discussed it. I think she thinks all parents do it at times. Anyway, round here half the kids want to be rudies themselves. Look, we're no different, okay? Onishima won't find us."

"He might. He knows you quit the GGs cos you got pregnant. He'll put time and energy into looking. Can't you just relocate until – well, until we know what he's up to?"

"Relocate to where?"

"We're holing out in Benten-cho at the moment," Future Gum said. "We lost the garage."

"So what you're telling me is," Piranha said, "you don't have our hideout, you don't know what he's planning, and you don't know how he can find us. And you think I'm the one who needs warning?"

Both Gums shrugged.

"You have no idea how freaky it is watching you two," Piranha said. "And what about Mari?"

"Who?" Past Gum said.

"My daughter, you moron."

"Any friends she could stay with? Or she could come with us."

Piranha rolled her eyes.

"Look," Future Gum said, "You think this isn't serious but I'm telling you, it is. Onishima knows you and Slate have set up house with a young child. He also can assume that as rudies you're unqualified and uneducated so you won't be earning much."

"So?" Piranha snapped.

"So you'll have to live in Kogane-cho, everywhere else is too expensive. So then all he has to do is lurk around and watch out for you. Slate's pretty distinctive even if you aren't and I think Onishima knows what you both look like. Then he sends in the cops, you two are arrested, and your daughter's at best in care and at worst lost."

Piranha swallowed. "But –"

Suddenly they heard footsteps. Heavy footsteps, coming up the stairs outside.

Piranha crept over to the door as someone banged on it, and a voice called, "This is the police! Open up in there!"

"Oh, help…" Piranha's face whitened. 

"Where's Mari?" Future Gum mouthed.

Piranha jerked her head in the direction of a room on the right. Gum tried to think. She and her future self would be recognised, and they couldn't let Piranha get caught. 

"Think there's anybody in?" another voice was saying.

"Don't know. Could be." Another bang on the door.

"We gonna break it down?"

"We don't have a warrant…Come back later…"

Gum let out her breath slowly as the footsteps echoed away.

"Shit, damn and bother," Piranha muttered. "You're right, aren't you?"

They nodded.

"Stop doing things at the same time, it's scaring me! Okay. Fine. Right, Slate's at work at the moment. One of you can go tell him, we're moving out. I'll come with you."

"I'll go tell him," Past Gum said. "Where is he working?"

"Shibuya Hardware Store. And he's there under his old name, Samuru, that is. Tell him to leave, take him to wherever you are the moment. Me and Mari will go with Future Gum, okay?"

She walked into the room on the right. A little girl was curled up on the sofa there watching a black-and-white TV. 

"Mari, get dressed," Piranha said. "We're going out."

"But mum, Digimon's coming on!" 

"Mari…" Piranha said dangerously. 

The girl pouted, but she stood up and tottered towards the door. Her skin was paler than Piranha's, chocolate-milk colour, and her hair was shoulder-length and dark brown. Her face was similar to Piranha's, but her eyes reminded Gum of Slate's. 

"I'll go and warn Slate," Past Gum said. "See you back at the hideout."

Future Gum nodded. "Good luck."

***

Combo yawned and opened his eyes. For a moment he didn't know where he was, then it all came flooding back. Cube. Finding Cube. Making Cube cry.

Oh, shit…

He sat up, and looked over at Cube's bed.

It was empty. 

There was a note on the pillow.

He walked over and picked it up. It was written in blue biro over an advert for car insurance torn from a newspaper.

_Dear Combo,_

I am sorry I ran out on you. I am sorry I shouted at you. But I need to be by myself. Thanks for being nice to me and giving me a place to sleep but I need to think and I don't think I deserve to be with you coz I am being so weird and I'm a Skull as well. Also I feel funny around guys at the moment. I really like you and thank you for being my friend but I don't think you can do much about what I've done to my mind. Maybe you should try and find the GGs. I am all right so don't worry about me.

Cube

"Damn!" Combo kicked the bed, forgetting his feet were bare, and stubbed his toe. Muttering curses under his breath, he sat back down, put on his skates, and reread the note. It didn't seem any better the second time.

At least she hadn't been angry.

But he was only her friend. Only her god-damn son-of-a-bitch friend. 

And where the hell had she gone? Out into Tokyo-to on her own, the way she'd been acting last night that didn't seem a good idea.

He glared at the bed, and then saw his spare T-shirt hung on the end of it. Jumping to his feet, he checked the bathroom. Her clothes were gone. 

She'd gone out with a Skull across her front.

And the cops knew what that meant.

He had to find her. He had to find her now.

***

Tab trudged away from Shibuya General Hospital, scuffing his feet along the ground. His skates were with the other GGs and the shoes he'd borrowed were annoying him. They made him feel vulnerable.

They also made it harder to kick things. And at the moment he wanted to kick something. It might make him feel better.

He didn't want to go back to the GGs at the moment. He didn't want to go back and see the guy who he was supposed to – supposed to _love, _for heaven's sake, who'd just admitted he'd betrayed him, betrayed them all.

His thoughts burned red behind his eyes.

_What's with you? _his brain asked, sounding annoyingly reasonable. _So he finally cracked under the pressure. He was there for five years, did you expect him to be Superman or something?_

Tab glowered. He knew he probably wasn't being fair, but who cared about fairness when you'd just got shot?

He crossed into Benten-cho, hurried through the silent streets, and arrived at number 74 in the residential area. As he walked up the stairs, footsteps echoing round the empty rooms, he found himself wanting to walk away again. Forget the GGs, go back to the Noise Tanks. They hadn't minded him hanging with his old gang. Thought it was funny, cos his old gang were fish food now.

"And you sure helped, Beat," he snapped.

Nearly at the top floor now. Below him the house stretched away, empty and dirty and bleak.

He missed the garage.

Despite the fact it had featured in his nightmares. He wasn't telling anyone about those, the dreams where he died or was arrested or Gum didn't save him…

Tab sighed as he reached the top landing. Okay. Time to face the music.

He knocked on the door, and then walked in.

The Gums were absent. Garam was playing on the computer, Yo-Yo was juggling two cans of spray paint, and Beat was sitting staring out of the window.

"Hi," Tab said.

"Dude, you're up!" Yo-Yo flung the paint cans into the corner and got to his feet. "You, like, okay now?"

"Yeah. Where're the Gums?"

"They've gone to warn Piranha and Slate."

"Warn 'em? About what?"

"Onishima's trying to capture the GGs and do something scientific and permanent to them," Garam said, keeping his eyes locked on the computer screen. "We thought we'd better tell Slate and Piranha."

"Gum read it in his diary," Yo-Yo said. "The one she stole from the station."

"Something scientific and permanent?" Tab said.

"Uh-huh. He and some woman called C have been developing a secret weapon to use on rudies, and he needs someone to test it on. So he's selected us. Because he hates our guts. He says we'll never be able to come back from it or something."

"Well, that's a great piece of news to start the day with," Tab said. "Anything else I should know about?"

"We reckon Combo and Cube are safe," Garam said. "And we don't know about Mew. You haven't heard nothing about her, have you?"

"No."

There was a computer-generated explosion from the screen, followed by a bleep. Garam cursed and got to his feet. "I give up. I'm going out tagging."

"Me too," Yo-Yo said. "By the way, Tabster, Gum brought your skates, I think they're over there…" He gestured to a heap of spray paint cans, magazines, and rubbish.

"Uh…thanks. Watch out for Onishima," Tab called as they left.

"I've figured out why Onishima's so short," he heard Yo-Yo mutter. "So no one sees him coming…"

Their voices faded away.

Tab walked over to the pile of stuff and rummaged through it to find his skates. As he put them on, he glanced at Beat, and his fury boiled up again.

"You're not going out?" he said.

"Why should I?" Beat didn't look round.

"Maybe meet up with your Keisatsu friends and tell 'em where we are now."

Beat's shoulders tensed, but he didn't say anything. Tab wished he would. He wanted to yell and let the rage go.

"You don't know where Mew is?" he said. "Onishima didn't tell you?"

"Leave me alone," Beat muttered.

"Why the hell should I? You got me shot!"

"Look!" Beat swung round to face him, eyes furious. "He broke my arm. It killed. I was tired, I was stressed, I'd been beaten on for five damn years. So I cracked. Have you never taken the easy course?"

"Not when it means betraying my friends!"

"I didn't want to betray you!"

"Oh, yeah, sure you didn't. A mysterious alien force took your brain over and made you spill your guts. I believe you, Beat!"

"What is your problem?" Beat said. "Garam didn't freak –"

"Garam's a killer himself. You know if Gum hadn't come back when she did I could be dead by now."

Beat closed his eyes a second. "But you're not."

"That's no excuse!"

"Get over it!"

"Get over it?" Tab wondered if punching him out of the window would be excessive. "Oh, yeah, I love that! I get shot and then find out my boyfriend caused it, but no big deal, worse things happen at sea, get over it! Chill out! Go with the fucking flow!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Good!"

They stared at each other. Tab blinked. The rage was making his vision flicker. 

"What else can I say?" Beat said. "I can't turn back time. Unfortunately. So just give me a break, quit making sarky comments, and go have fun with your tech-brain friends."

He turned back to the window again. Tab stood there a moment, then he marched over to the door, wrenched it open, and walked out, slamming it behind him.

***

Cube walked down through Shibuya bus terminal, wondering whether she dared leave the city.

So far she was managing to keep the blood away from her eyes by muttering that it wasn't real, but she didn't know how long that would last. What if she left Tokyo and then everything went crazy again and this time she didn't know anybody or anything? 

Maybe she should go back to Grind City.

But Combo was still in Japan…she should stay for him at least.

Why did you walk out on him? her brain complained. He would have helped you.

Exactly. I don't need anyone helping me. I need to be able to do it myself. I'm not just gonna play the weak little woman type.

And I felt the way he touched me. She shuddered. He'd been hope, he'd been safety, and then his hands…like Saburo…

It was still hot. Her head ached.

A flicker of red on the side of a bus – 

She blinked furiously. It's not real, it's not real, it's not real…

Rubbing her eyes, she carried on walking. She didn't know where now. Maybe she'd just get on a bus and let it carry her away. Maybe she didn't care now. 

Suddenly something slammed into her. The ground hit and it scraped her skin. She tried to get up, but hands grabbed her wrists, and she felt cold metal grate round them.

"Saburo?" she called out, hearing her voice wobble. "Is that you?"

"You're under arrest, Skull."

Cube drew a slow, terrified breath that ended in a sob. "I didn't – I didn't –"

__

Mean to, was what she wanted to say. But she couldn't seem to remember how.

She tried to sit up again, and the barrel of a gun jabbed the back of her neck, keeping her flat.

"Don't –" another voice said.

"You think anyone would care? You saw what they do."

"She deserves a fair trial."

Cube saw the blood rising from the ground, over the stones and litter, to touch her face. She started to scream.

"Shut up." The first voice grabbed her arms and hauled her upwards. Cube watched as the blood pooled around her feet, hardly able to breathe for terror.

It's not real, it's not real, it's not real…

"You know what she did?" one cop said to the other, shoving Cube forward. "She shot Toriyama, his wife, his son and his mother, just cos they were all staying at the house at the time."

It's not real, it's not real…

"How d'you know it was this particular Skull?"

"Witnesses report seeing a dark-haired girl running away from the house, and I bet her fingerprints will match up with the ones we found."

It's not real…

The blood was splashed over them by the bus roaring past. Cube wanted to rub the red off her face, but her hands weren't free to do it. They reached the police car. 

Cube closed her eyes as she was pushed inside, and wouldn't open them. She felt the car move off.

***

Mew lay on the cell bed, eyes sore, and wishing she had some clean clothes. Her school uniform was definitely the worse for wear after a night behind bars.

I will not panic, she told herself. I will not. I am fine, nothing's gonna happen, everything's okay, help me!

Calm.

What had happened to Isas?

After the phone call to the Miyamoto house last night the Crossbones had marched her down to the police station. Isas had been left at the house, locked in his room.

They'd go back there, Mew thought. They have gone back there. He's dead. That bitch whore cow Suki has killed him.

Tears rose in her eyes again, and she tried to swallow them down. She'd cried enough. Her face was tender and the salt hurt it.

Onishima hadn't said why he wanted her. Maybe it was just because she'd skipped out on the care home. Whatever, she'd been in this cell all night, trying to sleep, and nearly always failing. And trying not have a panic attack. And only just succeeding.

She heard footsteps, several pairs, one pair out of step, and sat up a little to see who it was. She'd been doing that all night too. Just in case it was someone she knew.

Three cops surrounding a black and white figure…

Cube.

Mew clenched her fists.

The other girl's eyes were squeezed close, and she'd bitten through her lower lip. Watery blood edged it.

They dragged her forward into Onishima's office, and the door shut.

Mew swallowed, got to her feet and hurried towards the bars. She pressed her face to them, tried to see what was going on in the office. 

Someone cried out. There was a sound of shouting, then another cry. Mew gripped the bars, tried not to imagine what could be happening, tried not to listen too much. 

At last, too long, the door opened again, and Cube was brought back out. Her eyes were still closed, one blackened, bruises speckling her bloodless skin.

They were walking towards Mew's cell.

Mew stepped back from the bars, starting to shiver. No, they couldn't be gonna beat on her now, could they, please, no…

The door screeched open, and Cube was shoved inside. Then it was banged shut, relocked, Mew shuddered at the sound.

"Cube," she said. "Cube! Are you all right?"

No answer. Cube's eyes were still shut.

"Cube, it's me, Mew." She hissed it, trying to get the words to be accepted. "I got away, see? Come on, talk to me!"

Cube didn't move.

Mew sighed, and wondered if life could get any worse.

***

Tab skated furiously through Kogane-cho, slicing gouges into the dust. 

Well, fine. Fine. He _would_ just go back to his techno friends, then. He didn't care. Fine.

_You don't care at all?_

No.

_Liar._

Tab kicked the crash barrier running along the edge of the road, striking rusty sparks.

He started to tag up the nearest wall with a Noise Destroys tag. Forget the GGs, he told himself. There's nothing left there for you. Nothing.


	14. Hostages

Chapter Fourteen – Hostages

(A/N: BansheeCat – if you're reading this – there's a kiss about two-thirds through the second scene, but it's only about two sentences long so please don't avoid the chapter! *begs*

Everyone, I'm sorry this chapter's so long, but I had a slight mix-up involving 2 Chapter Fourteens which I only noticed when I was proof-reading and the only option was to link the two together. Anyway, please r+r!)

***

The morning wore on. It was getting hotter.

Future Gum and Piranha and Mari, and Past Gum and Slate had arrived back at the Benten loft, to be greeted by a despondent Beat. Future Gum immediately took charge.

"Come on. Go after him."

"Why should I?" Beat snapped. He wasn't crying, but he looked like he might do sooner or later.

"Because I've had enough of you two pissing around."

"I thought you thought I was a traitor."

Gum sighed. "I still think you were dumb. But I like Tab, and I don't want him joining the Noise Tanks. Besides, you make a cute couple."

Beat glowered at her.

"Oh, come on!" Gum hauled him to his feet. "Get out there and locate him. Now."

"I'm still technically leader, you know," Beat muttered. "I don't have to listen to you."

"But you will, cos I'm always right."

Beat rolled his eyes, and headed out of the room.

***

Tab sighed. He'd tagged up all of Kogane-cho, and he still felt furious. The heat wasn't helping. It was making his head ache, and the sun was burning his eyes.

Now he was on the roofs of Kibogaoka, surrounded by white Noise Tank tags, and trying not to be miserable. Miserable was stupid. Keep the anger.

"Damn you," he muttered, wondering if he was mad enough to brain a bystander with a paint can. "Why'd you have to do this to me?"

Suddenly he heard the rattle of skate wheels hitting tiles. He looked round to see a familiar figure leap down from the path leading to the factory, landing on the rooftops.

Tab quickly turned away and started tagging over one of his own tags.

He felt the roof tremble slightly as Beat drew near to him, but didn't look round. If he did, he might…well, some of that rage might fade away.

"Tab, why are you tagging over a tag with an identical tag?"

Tab realised that he was, and shrugged. "None of your business."

Silence. But Beat didn't move. Tab tried to ignore him, but even with his back turned he could sense him standing there, and it was making it too hard to concentrate.

At last he swung round, and snapped, "What the hell do you want, traitor?"

Beat stared at his skates. "I…I just came to tell you I was sorry, I guess. I mean, about telling on you…and the garage…and everything."

Tab wanted to snap something back at him, but looking at him standing there, one arm in plaster, goggles and headphones missing…he'd always thought Beat looked more defenceless without his goggles and headphones.

Suddenly he felt mean.

"Thanks," he said.

"Yeah. Well. That's all I wanted to say." Beat turned to skate away.

Come on, return the favour, Tab's mind muttered.

"I'm sorry I called you a traitor and all," he said. For a moment it hurt to say it, but only for a moment. "You're right. It – it wasn't so bad."

Beat turned back. "You mean that?"

"Duh. Course I do."

Tab glanced at the ground, stared at the tiled distance between them, and wanted to close that distance.

So he did. He stepped forward, put his hands on Beat's shoulders, and kissed him.

Oh, yes. After five years it still worked. It was still like the missing piece of the mental jigsaw. He was breathless. And everything was all right.

_Bang._

"Get that rudie!"

Tab leapt back from Beat like he'd been burnt, fear and fury scorching his throat. "You –"

"Tab, I didn't, I –"

"You bastard!" Tab yelled. He hit out – Beat doubled over – Tab looked over at the ground below the roofs – a bullet pinged off a tile near them.

"They…they can't get us…" Beat gasped. "It's all right…"

"No thanks to you! That's all it was, right, just a plan to keep me here long enough!"

"No! No, I swear I didn't know he was coming!"

"Like hell you didn't!"

Fury roared up in front of his vision. Beat was staring at him, eyes full of hurt, and that stung, and damn it, how could he have been so _stupid? _He hit out again, Beat stumbled back…

The roof sloped…

His skates gathered momentum…

Tab watched in horror as Beat fell off the roof. It wasn't a long fall – but –

He dashed over to the edge and cried out without meaning to as Beat crumpled under a blow from a truncheon.

"Get off him, you punks!"

Onishima looked up. His eyes narrowed. "Try and stop us."

A small, sane part of Tab yelled _NO! _but the rest of him didn't listen, and he jumped.

He dashed forward, dodging through the cops. On his left lay the windows, he could jump through them, he'd be safe.

And on his right was Beat, struggling between two Keisatsu.

Oh, nuts, Tab thought.

He dashed towards Onishima, and wrenched the gun out of his hand before the police chief could react. Then he aimed it at the first cop – 

Please let Oni have put rubber bullets in – 

And fired.

The cop yelped, clutched his chest, but there was no blood. Tab breathed a sigh of relief and fired at the second cop, who also let go of Beat. Then both rudies started to run up the steps.

"You pushed me off the fricking roof…" Beat gasped as they ran. "What the hell was that for?"

"I thought you tricked me."

"Thanks."

"Don't start arguing, we got more important things to –"

"Fire!" a voice called from the roof.

"Shit –"

There was a bang like someone coughing, and tear gas sprouted out of the ground around them. 

Tab squeezed his eyes shut, tears stinging them, and gasped for breath. It didn't work. He couldn't stop choking, and whenever he opened his eyes they stung so much he had to shut them again.

It was almost a relief when the cops grabbed him and dragged him out of the gas towards the panda car. He took slow deep breaths, then suddenly remembered Beat, and twisted round to see what had happened to him.

The other GG was being marched towards the car as well, his face aching with terror. Tab swallowed. There was a lot of guilt stuck in his throat.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as Beat was shoved into the car next to him. 

Beat didn't answer. He was trembling.

The car moved off.

***

Beat swallowed as the cell door slammed shut behind him. Okay. Don't freak. Don't panic.

It was difficult not to panic. He was back here again, and after the freedom it seemed ten times worse. He wanted to scream, he wanted to beg to be let out, he wanted to switch off so he didn't have to notice anything.

Don't panic. He forced a lot of nasty memories out of his head.

He looked round the cell, at the schoolgirl standing staring at them. She looked familiar…

"Tab?" she gasped, hurrying over to them. "Beat?"

"Mew? How long you been here?" Tab hurried over to her. "They told me you got arrested, like, ages ago…"

Beat stared at her. Pleated skirt, shiny shoes, face bare of makeup – but Mew. Another GG alive. A GG he hadn't failed. Had he? 

"I got put on probation," Mew said. "I've been failing classes at Shibuya High School – hey, quit sniggering!"

"Sorry." Tab grinned. "You look sweet in a school uniform, that's all."

Mew glowered at him. "Anyway, I can see you're with the Noise Tanks still."

She'd changed, Beat thought. Like everyone had. Taller. Face more secretive, more…what was it? She'd been crying, he could see her eyes were red-rimmed. But it wasn't just that. She was humming with anger.

"Sort of," Tab said. "I been hanging out with the GGs for some time."

"What happened to you guys?" Mew said. "Beat, I thought you were in jail anyway."

Beat shrugged. "Gum and Yo-Yo got me out. Now I'm back in." He tried to keep his voice steady, not let it show the ice water terror in his veins.

"Well…well, at least it's only us three, right?" Tab said.

"Four," Mew said. "Cube's here, too."

"Cube?" Beat said. "I thought she was in the Skulls. That's what Gum told me."

"She is. That's why she's here."

Mew indicated the cell bed running along the wall. Cube was sitting on it, knees drawn up to her chest, eyes still closed.

Beat shivered. She looked shut down. She looked unreal. She did not look like the girl he'd known. 

What had happened to everyone?

"She's…I don't know." Mew sighed. "She won't talk, she won't open her eyes, she's totally withdrawn. I saw her twice before. First time she was all right…a little freaked to see me, though…"

"Yeah?"

"Second time she was a wreck, couldn't stop crying, kept seeing blood everywhere and muttering Improvise under her breath. And now…now…"

Tab walked over to Cube.

"I've been trying to talk to her," Mew said. "She came in this morning…but she just won't answer!" 

"Cube?" Tab spoke gently. "Cube, it's me, Tab. You awake?"

She didn't move.

"They hit her when they brought her in," Mew said. "And she hasn't spoken since."

"What happened to her? I thought Skulls were supposed to be tough." 

"She said…when I last saw her she said she wished she hadn't killed all those people…and…and I think her partner was doing something to her."

Tab touched Cube's arm, and she tensed, and her eyes opened, and she shoved him away. Then she slammed them shut again, and buried her face in her arms.

"Man, she's sure not got her people skills, has she?" Tab rubbed his arm where Cube had pushed him. 

Beat sighed. At least Tab was here too. At least other people were. 

Even if it was all Tab's fault he was here.

But if he hadn't betrayed them once, Tab wouldn't have thought he was about to the second time…

He rubbed the graze on his arm. It had hurt – not just physically – when he'd been pushed. Because Tab thought he deserved it. And that had echoed his own thoughts. He did. He was a traitor. The thought gnawed at his mind.

That rage. Rage in people's faces as they looked at him. Seemed to have been happening way too much these days. His parents, as he admitted what he was. Onishima as he said he wouldn't tell. And now Tab.

_But Tab's forgiven you now, okay? If it wasn't for the tear gas…_

Tear gas on the roof. Onishima must be desperate…

Oh, shit.

Beat froze, suddenly remembering what Gum had read out from that notebook.

"Guys…"

Mew and Tab both turned to look at him. Cube didn't move.

"I don't want to freak you out," Beat said slowly, "but Tab, what were you saying about something scientific and permanent?"

Tab swallowed. "Oh, yeah. But he wants all ten of us, right? Right?"

"What?" Mew stared at them both, nervousness rising on her tear stained face. "What do you mean?"

"Onishima needs us to test something that'll wipe us out," Tab said.

"You're kidding, right?"

"I don't kid about that stuff."

"Oh, help…" Mew started to pace the floor. "This isn't cool…this is so not cool…"

Beat silently agreed. Onishima _hated _them. What he was gonna do…

"Don't panic," Tab said. "The others'll get us out."

Tears started to well up in Mew's eyes.

"Mew, it's gonna be okay –"

Footsteps were coming down the corridor towards them. Onishima, followed by four cops.

Beat shrank back against the wall, acutely conscious of his broken arm. Memories of the last time he'd spoken to Onishima stung his thoughts. And it would be worse if it happened again, the other three would see…

Cube drew her knees up even closer to her chest.

"Right," Onishima said to the cops. "Bring 'em out."

They were marched down the corridor and into Onishima's office. Every step of the route was familiar to Beat, and he felt sweat mingling with the Kogane dust on his palms.

Mew stumbled as they entered the office.

"Oh, Miyako. Lost your balance?"

There was a girl perched on the edge of Onishima's desk, wearing a white T-shirt with black crossbones on it. 

"You been crying?" she said, studying Mew's face. "I guess weak little rudies whores like you do that a lot. Is it Isas breaking your heart?"

Mew looked up, and Beat saw her eyes narrow, and her jaw tighten as she gritted her teeth.

"You cow," she hissed. "You bitch, you slut, you sneaky murdering fat whore, you killed him!"

The girl raised her eyebrows, and flicked her thick dark hair over her shoulders. "Ooh, touchy. Actually, I didn't."

"What?"

"He managed to break out of his room," she said. "But no worries. The cops'll hunt him down, him being a killer and all."

"And you're not?" Mew yelled.

"This is what happens when you fraternise with rudies."

Beat watched as Mew was forced to sit down in front of the desk. He wondered what had happened. He didn't remember her ever being this angry.

"Suki, zip it," Onishima said, walking round to the unknown girl. "And get off the desk."

Suki scowled. "Why the hell should I?"

"Just do it!" Onishima slammed a fist down onto the desk. Suki rolled her eyes again, and said, "Careful, daddy, your blood pressure must be going through the roof."

"Daddy?" Mew said. 

"Duh," Suki said. "You don't think I just hate rudies because they're idiots, do you?"

"Mew, who is it?" Tab asked.

"She – she – oh, she's just a bitch and she –"

"I tried to kill a guy she fancied," Suki said. "You see –"

"Suki, sit down!" Onishima roared.

Suki glowered, but slid off the desk and onto a chair a few feet away from it. 

"Right. Okay." Onishima drew a deep breath. "Where's your gang now?"

Beat realised Onishima was talking to him, and gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to betray them again. He wasn't.

"Onishima, give it up," Tab said. "Why bother trying to catch us all the time? All it does is stress you out."

Onishima glowered at him. "I am going to put all ten of you out of commission – permanently – if it kills me. Now listen, can you contact your gang?"

"Why?" Tab asked.

"Because they might just want to know if they don't turn up at the police station in the next half hour, you four will be dead rudies."

"That's a little excessive, even for you," Tab said. "Last thing I heard, murder was still a crime."

Onishima shrugged. "Who'd care about a bunch of dead street punks, tell me that?"

"Can you contact them?" Mew asked Tab. 

"Yeah…"

Beat stared at her, and Cube, and Tab. Dead. He wouldn't. This couldn't happen. 

_It could and will. Onishima's serious._

"What else can we do?" Mew had gone white, only the skin round her eyes coloured.

_Betray the other GGs. Again._

"No."

Beat sat up a little, forced himself to look at Onishima, suddenly furious.

"No. I'm not letting you get them."

Suki snorted. "Come _on. _They're rudies, aren't they? They'll be got sooner or later so you may as well give in."

"You spilled your guts once," Onishima said. "You can do it again."

Beat felt his strength evaporating. _You're nothing. You know he's right. _

You spilled your guts once…

He wanted to hide.

_Oh, real brave._

"Leave him alone," Tab said. "He – he never did anything to you!"

"That's what you think," Suki snapped.

"Oh, yeah? What? Run you over in the street? Paint over your favourite area of wall? What did he do to you?"

"It wasn't him!" Suki yelled. "Well, I dunno. It might have been. It's all you rudies, you swan around acting like you're the shit and then people listen to you and then they get hurt and then they – they…"

"That's enough!" Onishima roared, grabbed a gun and fired it into the ceiling. "Suki, if you don't keep your mouth shut you'll have to wait outside."

"Yeah, Suki," Mew said, smirking. "Listen to your daddy." Suki glowered at her, and rubbed a hand across her eyes.

"Anyway," Onishima said, "if you don't speak up, it's three other deaths on your conscience."

"And if we do, it's six," Mew said. "We lose either way, don't we? Thanks a bunch, Onishima."

Beat let his hands curl into fists, his nails hurting his palms. Mew was right. It didn't matter what they did. Either way, he and the girls and Tab would die.

"So call 'em," Onishima snarled. "One of you. Or I start shooting. I've had a hard day and I'm not taking any crap from rudie scum like you."

Mew gulped. Suki tittered.

"I'll do it," Tab said. "It's my fault me and Beat are here in the first place."

"No –" Beat stared at him. It's not your fault, don't say that. I don't care what happened, just don't do it…

"I said, I'll do it. Care to give me a phone, shorty?"

Onishima gritted his teeth, and pushed the phone out from under a pile of papers towards Tab. "Tell 'em to get here in the next half-hour. All six of 'em. Or else. You get the idea?"

Tab nodded, and started dialling the number.

They waited in the stuffy office. Beat wanted to get up and snatch the phone from Tab's hands, but if he did, he'd seal their death warrants.

"Hello?" Tab said at last.

"Uh – hello?" 

Garam's voice echoed into the heavy air. Speakerphone, Beat realised. Mew scowled.

"Garam, it's Tab. Look, we got a little situation here."

"What?"

"Me, Beat, Mew and Cube, we're all at the police station."

"Shit," Garam said. "You all okay?"

"Yeah, but Onishima's sorta turned evil. Well, eviller. He says you guys have got to come to the station and give yourselves up in the next half hour, or he'll kill us."

"What?" Garam's voice crackled with static. "He can't be serious."

"I know, but he looks serious from where I'm standing. He wants all six of you…"

Tab stopped a moment.

"Yeah," he said at last. _"All six _of you. Get it?"

"Uh –"

"Sorry to put the pressure on, but I've got two members of the Onishima family on my tail and at least one seriously depressed rudie. Tell the others I'm sorry too."

"Okay, um, don't worry. We'll help you."

"Cool. Bye, Garam."

He put down the phone.

"Happy now?" he said to Onishima. 

Beat felt the hate boil under his ribs.

"I'll be happy," Onishima said, eyes narrowed, "when I've got all ten of you down here and I can get rid of you at last."

***

"Guys!"

Past Gum looked round as Garam burst into the room.

"Huh? I thought you were still out tagging," Future Gum said.

"I came back early. Yo-Yo's still out there. And just as I got in the phone in the hallway rang and it's Tab and Beat and Mew and Cube, Onishima's kidnapped them."

"No way," Piranha said. 

"Oh, hi, Piranha…" Garam surveyed the room. "Hi, Slate, hi, Slate and Piranha's kid. He says if all six GGs don't go up to the station in half an hour, he'll kill 'em."

Past Gum swallowed. Her stomach was slowly turning to ice.

"What're we gonna do?" she said at last.

"What can we do?" Future Gum said. "For one thing, we don't _have _all the GGs…"

"Guys!" a voice yelled from outside.

"Ooh, déjà vu," Piranha muttered.

Yo-Yo burst through the door. "Guess what? I got another one!"

"What?"

"Another GG! Combo, get in here!"

Past Gum watched as Combo strolled into the room, and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked practically the same – indeed, he didn't look like he ever would change. 

"I met him looking for Cube round here," Yo-Yo said. "He stayed with her last night."

"Okay, good to see you and all, Combo," Future Gum said, "but now we do have a problem." She quickly explained the situation.

"Why are there two Gums?" Combo said at last.

She explained that as well.

"Well…come on, guys, we can't exactly just leave them in there," Yo-Yo said. "Even if Oni don't kill 'em, he'll still bang 'em up behind bars for life."

"Cube don't need that," Combo said, his face darkening. "She don't need that at all."

"Nor does Beat," Future Gum said. "But if Onishima knows there's six of us and he wants us all there…"

Past Gum nodded. There didn't seem to be much of a way out of this. Six rudies, six remaining GGs out of the ten…

Wait.

"But there aren't six of us," she said.

"Huh?"

"Look. There's seven of us." Past Gum grinned. "Onishima doesn't know about me, does he?"

"So?" Slate said.

"I can – I can stay here, stay out of jail, try and do something."

"Why you?" Future Gum demanded. "Why not me?"

"Cos we don't want him to suspect. If I look five years younger than everyone else…nuh-uh. Come on, this is our only option."

"But what can you do?" Garam said. "We got less than twenty-five minutes now. Not like you can bust us out on your own."

Past Gum shrugged. "Look. It's a chance. It's something he doesn't know about. It may save your hides."

"So…we're going?" Piranha said. She looked over at Mari, who was playing awkwardly on the computer.

"You guys have anyone – anyone at all – you can leave her with?" Future Gum said, following Piranha's line of sight.

Piranha shrugged, looking like she was about to burst into tears. "I won't go," she said. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry about them but I'm not letting Mari get in trouble. I won't go."

"Piranha, look, we can leave her with the Osakas," Slate said. 

"Who're they?" Future Gum asked.

"Our next door neighbours. Kids're all grown up. They worship Mari. She'll be safe there, you know it, safer than here."

"But –"

"What else can we do?" Garam said. "Anyway, if this all works, Gum'll bust us out and you'll be reunited with your kid by this evening."

"All right," Piranha said, slowly. "But…what if something happens to her? And they don't know where I am…"

"They're competent people, they can deal with it," Slate said. He walked over to Piranha and hugged her. "It'll be all right, okay? I'll take her over there now. We can tell 'em we're having a little cop trouble, they'll know where to reach us –"

"If we're not permanently zombiefied or whatever it is Onishima's planning," Yo-Yo said. "Okay, let's get moving, then."

Past Gum watched as the GGs plus Mari trudged out of the room. All except one. Yo-Yo.

"What do you want?" she said, scowling as she remembered he'd been snogging her future self not long ago.

"Look…uh…I wanted to say good luck, okay? And, and if I don't see you, then…I really like you, that's all. And I'm sorry I ain't handling this past self/future self situation better. I don't want to hurt you, either of you."

"Thanks." He really likes me! He really really likes me! Gum felt a huge grin spread over her face.

Yo-Yo stepped forward, and kissed her on the lips. Just a quick kiss this time, but Gum felt her fingers clench. 

"Now you better try and save us," he said. "Or I won't ever be able to do that again."

Gum watched him walk out of the room. The sunlight seemed brighter, and soft music was playing in her ears…

And if she didn't think of a plan, the GGs would be wiped out for good.

***

She slunk out and shadowed the GGs to the police station, keeping some distance away from them just in case the cops were looking. She watched them walk up the steps to the front door. She watched them get dragged inside. 

And then she wanted to panic.

What the hell was she going to do?

She crept closer to the police station, and tried desperately to think of a plan.

"Uh – hello?" someone whispered.

Gum turned, slowly, heart beating. "Yes?" She tried to look as if hanging around outside police stations was a perfectly normal thing to be doing.

A dark-haired boy wearing a rumpled black T-shirt and black school trousers was staring at her.

"Um, you're a rudie, aren't you?"

Gum frowned at him. "It's the skates, isn't it?"

"Do you know a rudie called Mew?"

"Yeah. She's in my gang. Well, she was –"

"She got arrested," the boy said. "Last night."

"How do you know?"

"I was there. My name's Isas, me and Mew, we're, um, friends."

"Oh. Okay." Friends. That's why you're twitching like that, is it? "Well, Onishima's caught the whole gang except me, and I need to get them out, so any ideas?"

"I've been round here quite some time," Isas said. "I heard them say they're gonna take a bunch of rudies up to the Rokkaku building."

Gum was suddenly cold. "No way."

"Way." Isas closed his eyes a second. "I don't know what to do."

"What can we do? If they go there you know they're not meant to come out…" Gum heard her voice crack, and swallowed. "Sorry."

"We could –"

"Leave her alone!"

Combo's voice echoed from the back of the police station. 

Gum and Isas glanced at each other, and crept forward.

The GGs were being marched into one of those police vans by what looked like most of the cops in the station. Gum flattened herself against the wall. Onishima must be worried.

She wanted to rush forward and just grab those bastards off her friends.

But she couldn't. She couldn't.

Yes, they were all there. Mew, wearing a crumpled school uniform, taller, more serious than she'd been five years ago, biting her lip – Gum heard Isas catch his breath. And Cube, eyes closed, looking so much weaker than she had been. Gum felt sick. Someone else she wished she'd been able to save.

The last GG – Slate – stumbled into the van, the doors were slammed shut and locked, Gum heard a roar as the engine started up. The cops began to walk back into the building through the side entrance.

And Gum realised what to do.

"Listen," she said to Isas. "Go and tell people what's happened. Tell them a bunch of kids are gonna be murdered at the Rokkaku building. Tell them everything."

"What about you?"

Gum watched as the van passed them, gathering speed.

She dashed forward, grabbed hold of the back of it, and instantly shot along the road. As she was dragged away, she stared back at Isas, and gave him a thumbs-up. Then the van turned a corner – her arm muscles wrenched painfully – and he was gone.

***

The van pulled up to the Rokkaku complex at one minute past midday. The heat was almost intolerable now, the sun burning Gum's skin and making her squint.

She watched as the driver got out and walked over to the intercom on the front door. The Rokkaku building stared down at her, the symbol like a warped red eye. _We know what you're doing. You're not supposed to be here. _

I'm a rudie, Gum thought, trying to sound insolent because it gave her confidence. I'm never supposed to be anywhere.

The driver was saying, "The rudies – uh – Miss Camilla Rokkaku requested are here. With Captain Onishima."

The intercom buzzed, and a voice said, "Thank you. Please take your vehicle round to the underground car park. Someone will be sent along to direct you."

Gum licked her dry lips. Okay. Timing.

The van jerked forward, and she clung on, fingers hurting. It turned round the side of the skyscraper and drove down a slope into cool, oil-smelling darkness.

Gum let go, dropped, rolled, ducked behind a car, and watched as the van was directed to a space. Slowly she slithered round the side of the car, keeping low, trying to ignore the grime getting smeared over her dress. 

Onishima had got out of the van, with the driver, and a girl about Gum's age with dark hair and a scowl. They stood, waiting, and then Gum's heart gripped her chest as a large group of Golden Rhinos came walking forward, afros, sunglasses, dodgy moustaches, all complete.

Shit, she mouthed to herself.

She saw the doors opened in the flickering industrial lights, saw the GGs being dragged out, saw their faces as they recognised the Rhinos. She wriggled a little nearer. Be careful, be careful, one slip and you're dead and so are they…her heart was so loud she could hardly hear anything else. She took a few deep, silent breaths and watched as the group headed towards a lift in the far corner.

Nearer. Nearer still.

"Floor ninety-nine," one of the Rhinos said, and the doors closed.

The only person left was the driver, who walked back to his van and sat there, waiting. Soon Gum heard music echoing out over the car park from the van radio, and saw the driver take out his newspaper. Excellent.

She walked up to the lift, and pressed the call button.

***

Tab let himself be shoved forward by the Rhinos, and tried to ignore the terror on everyone's faces. 

This was his fault. They could've held out, he didn't have to call them. And he had. 

Was this how Beat had felt?

I am so sorry, he thought silently. I am so, so sorry.

But what else could he have done? 

_It made no difference, _his brain pointed out. _You, Beat, Cube and Mew are dead whatever happens. But you could have protected the others._

And I didn't.

__

I couldn't let them kill him…

You idiot, he told himself. They'll kill him anyway. Just a bit later on. You hear me? _They'll kill him._

It didn't seem real. Something would turn up.

_If you'd let Onishima shoot us at the station, at least people would have seen. At least Oni might have got in trouble. Now – no one'll know. And, as usual, no one'll care._

The others could have survived. You just panicked, you just couldn't bear to see anything happen to Beat.

And what is so wrong with that? He's had enough happen to him already. I just…

_You just screwed up._

They were being marched along a corridor towards a door at the end. The small windows showed tempting glimpses of Tokyo-to, miles below them.Tab tried to think of something that could make the situation better. All he could come up with was _well, at least we're not dead yet._

They'd reached the door now. The leading Rhino knocked. 

It swung open, and an amazingly beautiful woman stared out at them. Her jet-black hair was tied back in a sensible ponytail, which ran down her back, contrasting sharply with her white lab coat. Large blue eyes narrowed as she saw them, and the shapely mouth curved into a smile. 

"Excellent," she said to Onishima, who was standing next to the leading Rhino. "Ten of them?"

Onishima nodded. 

"Bring them in," she said.

The group moved into the room, which was a large laboratory. Sunlight from the wide windows glittered on the tall cylinder-shaped machine that dominated the lab, and on the ten chairs next to it.

"Please, sit down," the woman said to the GGs.

Not like we have a choice, Tab thought as a Rhino shoved him down into a chair. He had Beat on one side of him and Gum on the other. Beat grinned as their eyes met, but it was a nervous grin. 

Tab swallowed. He especially didn't want to see them test whatever this thing was on Beat.

Onishima and Suki stood next to the machine, both eyeing it nervously, and the Rhinos ranged themselves in a line behind the chairs.

"Good afternoon," the woman said. "My name is Camilla Rokkaku, and I am here to demonstrate a machine that the Rokkaku Corporation has developed."

"Oh, yeah, and what's it gonna do?" Gum's voice was louder than normal, and Tab could see she was sitting very straight. "Disembowel us? Electrocute us? What? What's today's murder?"

"Please, it's not murder," Camilla said. "It's simply alteration of a critical variable to adjust time in order to create a desired effect."

Tab felt everyone looking at him. "What?" he asked them.

"Translate her for us, kid," Combo said.

"Come on, Camilla," Beat said. "Give it to us in plain Japanese."

"Very well." Camilla sighed. "This machine scrolls through time, and adjusts one critical factor. For instance, someone will decide to take a walk where originally they stayed at home."

"And?" Slate said.

"This changes our present."

"Oh, get on with it," Onishima snarled. "You can basically erase all these punks from time."

"What?" Gum yelled. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"He's right," Camilla said. "One change and I can prevent all the drunken one-night-stands that created you ten."

Tab swallowed. This sounded crazy. But – but if Past Gum could time travel…

Oh, shit. Oh, shit.

"Yeah," Onishima said. "She can make it so you pests never existed. And that's gotta be good."

"No way!" Garam yelled. "That is just freaky!"

Camilla shrugged. "All great scientists got called that." She walked over to the control panel next to the machine, and typed something in.

There was a hum, and a blue light spilled down from the ceiling, bathing the GGs in sapphire.

"This is crazy," Gum said, her voice shaking. "This is crazy. And you're out of your head. This won't work."

"And besides," Tab said, "you got no right to do it! You can't decide who should exist and who shouldn't, you're not a god."

Camilla scowled, her eyebrows rising with exasperation. "Look. I'm doing you a favour. I've got your pasts, presents and futures all set out on this screen. And let me tell you, the futures – if I never developed this, if you never were brought here – are not good."

"Yeah, that suits you, doesn't it?" Gum said. She jumped to her feet, hair ice-coloured in the light. "Try and tell yourself this is for the common good, then you can avoid the guilt. Yeah, right!"

Camilla glanced down at the screen, then said, "I suppose it's you seeing your father rape your mother that's made you so antagonistic."

Gum's face whitened horribly, and she dropped back into the chair. Tab wanted to leap up himself and knock Camilla's smirk off her face, but he could feel the Rhinos behind him, their presence hurting the back of his neck. 

"I told you," Camilla said. "I have your lives here. You…" She pointed to Beat. "Getting thrown out of your home and coming to Tokyo and founding this two-bit group of troublemakers…you…" She glanced at Combo. "Losing your best friend to my father's henchmen…you…" She turned to Piranha and Slate. "Conceiving the brat you've left with the Osaka family."

"You don't talk about my daughter that way," Piranha snapped out. "Wow, you know our pasts? Well, we're not ashamed of those pasts. If anything, I'd be more ashamed if I was like you. Born with a silver spoon up my ass."

Camilla shrugged. "Whatever you think. It's your futures I'm concerned with."

"Ain't that kinda nosy?" Combo said.

"Maybe. But really interesting. I mean, take your friend Cube, who if I'm not much mistaken is sitting next to you right now."

Tab glanced at Cube, who still had her eyes shut. 

"She will be tried for all the murders she's done, and found guilty. Obviously. And on 15th April, 2007, she will be executed."

There was a silence. Tab saw Combo's face become motionless, like carved wood. 

"No," he said.

"Do you even know what she did?" Camilla said. "Onishima does. And his daughter has some idea."

She glanced over at the police captain, who said, "Yeah. She killed seven families. All of 'em, shot them in front of each other, tortured them. Real bitch you have, _kid."_

Combo leapt to his feet this time, but two of the Rhinos rushed round and pushed him back down again.

Tab looked at Cube, at her drowned face, and his throat ached with a mixture of misery, fury and horror.

"You, of course, didn't like that too much," Camilla said to Combo, a singsong note entering her voice. "You visited her, you tried to keep her strong. You saw her die. Then you went back to Grind City, and boy did you go bad! Not just rudie stuff this time. Theft, violence, drug smuggling. The cops weren't too happy. On 23rd January, 2008, you'll be shot in a police raid."

Onishima's face was twisted into a pained smile.

"Now, who do we have next?" Camilla surveyed the GGs. Tab found himself shrinking into his seat. "Ah, Mew. Or Miyako, I suppose you could be known as. Now, you're right, you did fail your exams – you violated your probation, so you went to jail. Isas failed his too…"

Mew's eyes widened. "You know about Isas?"

Camilla indicated the screen. "He visited you all that time. When you came out, he stuck by you, you set up house together. But you see, intellectually he is far your superior."

Suki gave a snort of laughter. "No shit."

"You started having rows, terrible, terrible rows. You drank to cope with the pain, and that didn't help. One night you threw a lamp at him, and in a horrible twist of fate it struck him in a vulnerable spot, and killed him."

Tears spilled from Mew's eyes, making her suddenly look younger.

"In your intoxicated state, you couldn't think straight, so you decided to kill yourself, and shoved your head in the gas oven. You will die 14th June, 2015."

"Serves you right," Suki said to Mew, sounding childishly angry. "Wish you'd do it sooner."

Tab wondered how much more of this he could take. Tears were thinking of stinging his own eyes, and he didn't want Camilla – anyone – to see them.

"Now, you two…" Camilla indicated Yo-Yo and Gum. "Your futures are closely bound together. You finally sort out your little romantic problems and start dating. Then you have a row. He walks out, and gets in the way of a paratrooper's bullet on 10th October, 2006…"

"Shut up!" Gum screamed. "Just shut up!"

The Rhino standing behind her chair caught her on the back of the head with the side of his machine gun. 

"Gum, you aren't too happy about this, so you quit the GGs completely. You head to another city, and being the rudie dropout that you are, and unable to find a gang to hook up with, turn to prostitution to support yourself. You then catch a rather nasty disease, and die 5th December, 2020."

Gum snorted. "That is the biggest load of crap I ever heard. You are just making these up, or at least making 'em worse than they are, cos they all read like the plot of a really bad novel."

"Rudies read novels?" Camilla said. "No, sorry, they're all true. Now, who else? Oh, yes, Slate and Piranha. Well, you're not too bad. You live in Kogane-cho, your kid grows up, she goes to school, you carry on working at your menial jobs for the next forty years. Slate, you have a heart attack and die on 7th November, 2050. Piranha, you struggle on single for a nice long time, before succumbing to Alzheimer's Disease and finally dying 2nd March, 2065."

Piranha buried her face in her hands, and Slate put his arms round her.

"Garam."

Garam jumped, then tried to look like he hadn't. 

"You quit the Skulls."

"He's a Skull?" Onishima yelled, grabbing his gun.

Camilla glared at him. "You don't need to do that. They'll all be gone soon. Now, as I was saying, you quit the Skulls. Which is good. A pity Cube never got the message about your rendezvous…"

"What?" Garam yelled.

"Saburo never told her. Seeing as how he was copulating with her – oh, sorry, you don't know what that means – screwing her behind your back, I'm not surprised."

Garam's jaw tensed as he gritted his teeth.

"You can't take Cube getting caught and all, sadly. The guilt thing, you know. So you slit your wrists on 4th January, 2008."

Garam swallowed. At last he said "What happens to Saburo?"

Camilla shrugged. "Sorry. I haven't scanned him, have I? Anyway, who have I got left? Oh, yes. You two."

Tab swallowed and hoped he didn't look as terrified as he felt. 

"Now, there's a problem with you two," Camilla said, her perfect eyebrows drawn together in a frown. "You see, there's two different futures, and I'm not sure why."

"What, you had two great ideas and you couldn't decide which one to use?" Beat said.

"In one," Camilla said, "Beat is sent to Dobuita Prison, and is murdered there in a knife fight on 4th July, 2007. Tab, you really start to miss him…"

Tab felt hot fury start to bubble in his ribcage as Camilla rolled her eyes.

"But that doesn't last for too long. A train puts you out of your misery on 12th February, 2009."

Tab considered the information, but was unable to absorb it. It wasn't real. It couldn't be real.

"But here's the conflict," Camilla said. "In the other future, Beat is rescued while en route to the prison. And you are reunited."

"But not for long, right?" Tab said. 

"No. You have a spat, as it were…about Beat's instance of betrayal while in custody…"

Tab glanced at Beat, and saw him tense.

"It's okay," he hissed. "No one cares about that any more."

"Hey, it's what she says next I'm worried about." 

"Beat is arrested again, and commits suicide on 31st August, 2005. Understandably. And then, well, Tab, you just get totally depressed and throw yourself off the highest point in Kogane-cho into the river on 1st November, 2005."

Tab swallowed. Today was 24th August. He looked over at Beat. In a week Beat would be dead…he felt his throat tighten.

"I'm still here now," Beat whispered, and gripped his hand. "Come on. Don't let the science bitch see she got to you."

"So…" Camilla said. "Let's get going." 

She turned back to the control panel and started to type. The machine's hum changed in pitch, and Tab felt his skin tingling.

"It will take up to ten minutes for all the variables to be altered," Camilla said. "Then it will take anything between one and five minutes for you all to be erased."

Onishima laughed. Camilla stared at them, her face mildly pleased, looking like someone who would advertise washing powder. 

"I suggest you make peace with each other, and prepare to depart this earth."

***

Past Gum crouched behind the table in the laboratory, and tried to think, but her head was buzzing with terror and rage, and it drowned out her thoughts. 

_She can't do this. She just can't._

Seeing your father rape your mother…

Prepare to depart this earth…

A paratrooper's bullet…

Slowly she crept forward. She'd have to get to the machine and try and…try and reverse it or something. Not that she had any clue how to. She swallowed back a sob. She couldn't do this. She couldn't save any of them. This wasn't fair!

Move it! Move it or they'll all be deleted!

And then she heard a Rhino call out, looked round, saw them hurrying towards her, leapt to her feet, catching her side on a table, pain shot through her hip as test tubes shattered and piles of books toppled to the ground, she ran towards the machine – 

"Don't shoot!" Camilla yelled. "You'll break something!"

Running feet, she was cornered, the door was blocked, she tried to reach the control panel, Camilla shoved her back, and her arms were grabbed, and she was caught.

Camilla looked from Gum to Future Gum and smirked. "I see," she said. "This explains the aberration I noticed. I presume you helped him escape from prison?"

"Woah," Suki gasped. "Freaky. You're like twins."

"Get used to it, bitch," Gum snapped. She struggled to break free, but the Rhinos clutched her wrists like iron.

"Let go of her!" Yo-Yo yelled.

Camilla shrugged. "It doesn't matter whether I do or not. She is simply a past version of Gum. They'll both be erased."

Gum swallowed. Oh, shit. Camilla was right. Soon she wouldn't be. Soon she'd disappear. Soon…

The humming of the machine rose, stinging her ears. Camilla walked over to the control panel and checked it. "Yes," she said. "Not long now."

This can't be how it ends, Gum thought. This can't be…

"I imagine it was the virus someone unleashed onto the Rokkaku computer system that brought you here," Camilla said. She studied the screen on the control panel again. "No – it was you, wasn't it?" She stared at Tab. "You created that virus."

"You did that?" Onishima roared.

"Didja like it?" Tab sneered. 

"Do you know how crazy the station has been –" Onishima began, but Camilla cut him off, and said, "It was mildly amusing. The obsession of the younger age group with sex is truly extraordinary."

"Come on," Onishima muttered from behind Gum. "When's this gonna work?"

"Soon. Please, captain. Patience."

"What's with him?" Garam said. "Why's he got such a beef against us anyway? You know so much, tell us that!"

Camilla shrugged. "Gladly. His daughter was a rudie."

"Shut up!" Onishima roared.

Camilla carried on like she hadn't heard. "She spent every single night out of the family house, skating and tagging. Onishima turned a blind eye to it – she was his daughter, after all…"

"Yeah," Suki muttered. "You'd have turned a blind eye to everything Mimi did, wouldn't you?"

"I mean it," Onishima yelled.

"Then one night – in December – she came home, and she'd been gang-raped by a bunch of rudies. She became very depressed, and then finally hanged herself in her room on 1st May, 1999."

"That's right," Suki snapped. "Tell them. Then they can see what their kind's really like. See that, Mew? That's why I hate rudies." Tears trembled in her voice. "That's why I hate them, because they screwed up my life and I can't get away from it. You know what a pain it was to have to see you every day at school? You sauntering around like you owned the place? When I knew what you were, and, and what you did to Mimi, you wrecked our family…"

Mew looked up at her, face smeared with tears. "Your life's been screwed up? Join the club."

Onishima glared at Camilla, a vein throbbing in his temple. "That's right. Tell 'em. Let 'em laugh like they always do."

"Why would I laugh?" Past Gum said. Her wrists were starting to throb where the two Rhinos were gripping them. 

She felt the next phrase form in her mouth like a toad, and spat it out, hating herself. "I figured your daughters would be whores, so it doesn't surprise me."

"You bitch!" Suki yelled.

Onishima, face almost inhuman with anger, grabbed his gun and aimed it at her head. Gum struggled to dodge – 

"Why waste a bullet?" Camilla said. "She'll be gone soon."

Gum opened her mouth to retort something, but she never got a chance to, because she was cut off by a shriek from Piranha.

Slate was fading. Gum could see the back of his chair through him – he turned to look at Piranha – then froze – and then suddenly he just wasn't there any more.

Piranha gave a little sob, put out her hand to touch the space he'd been occupying.

Her clothes changed from black to white, her body slimmed, the stretch marks faded away…

"What's wrong?" Camilla said. "He never existed. So you don't remember him, do you?"

"I do," Piranha said. "I do…I…"

Gum frowned, trying to remember herself who had disappeared. No – not disappeared – something had happened – but what? Camilla's time machine was going to erase them all, but it couldn't have started yet, because they were all there, all nine of them plus her…

_In the Osaka house, Mari dropped her red crayon. By the time it hit the floor, she was gone._

Gum watched the GGs, desperately trying to notice when they'd vanish. But they _couldn't. _They were her friends. They wouldn't vanish. This was impossible…

Piranha was going flickery, like a badly-tuned ghost.

Only for a second. 

"Piranha…Piranha's gone…" Mew's tearstained face paled. 

"How is that tragic?" Camilla asked. "Who's Piranha?"

Gum nodded. Who _was _Piranha? Something funny was going on, but she couldn't see what.

_Back in 2000, eight GGs prepared to save the city. There'd always been eight. Everyone knew that._

"Get on with it already!" Garam yelled at Camilla. "I thought you said it'd take like fifteen minutes!"

Camilla shrugged. "I've started."

"No, you haven't! No one's disappeared!"

"They have," Tab said. "Think about it. I don't know who Slate and Piranha are either, but they must be people she's just erased. Now they never existed, we don't remember them, but we used to. Five minutes ago, we knew them."

"So – so we're all gonna forget each other?" Combo said.

"I guess so."

"You sick, twisted bitch!" Garam leapt to his feet – ran towards Camilla – 

He shimmered – 

Camilla shrugged.

"Garam?" Gum said. 

No answer.

Well, of course, there wouldn't be, would there? There was no one there.

_Cube entered the Skull HQ, and her heart pounded at the sight of Saburo. She hadn't had a boyfriend since Coin. She was feeling desperate._

Seven GGs, plus me, Past Gum thought. It won't take long to erase them, and then she'll erase me, and – and I just won't be…She struggled again to break free of the Rhinos, but they weren't even breaking a sweat keeping her still.

"This is just crazy," Yo-Yo said. 

"You're telling me." Mew flicked her tangled hair out of her eyes – 

Her hair froze – 

Her face was outlined against Gum's vision like a lightning flash, then it faded away.

"Mew," Tab said. "Don't forget her name, she did exist, Camilla just wiped her."

"Who the hell is Mew?" Future Gum demanded. 

"See?"

_Isas blinked as he stared down at his maths book. For a moment he'd had a sense of something – something else he should have been doing._

Yeah, like getting out of maths, he answered himself. He stared down into his bag, where a book of tags was tucked under his chemistry folder. Maybe one day he'd actually get to meet a real rudie. Though they'd probably just laugh at him.

"This is crazy," Future Gum said. "I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it. You're just fucking around with our minds."

"She's rewriting history," Tab said. "If I go next, you won't remember me."

"Yeah, right!"

"Right," Camilla said. "Give it up, Tab. You're just remembering possibilities. Things that never happened. Things that never needed to happen."

"Yeah," Onishima said. "This'll get rid of all rudies, and that's for sure."

"You can't just delete them all!" Tab's voice rose with incredulity. "That'll send time into a tailspin, you don't know what effects it'll have on the future!"

Suki rolled her eyes at him. "Like we care, skate boy."

"Anyway," Camilla said. "It'll be a better future. That's because –" 

"Cube – no!"

Combo's voice echoed round the laboratory as Cube opened her evaporating eyes. 

"Combo, I –"

The rest of the sentence vanished with the speaker.

Combo leapt to his feet. "You killed her, you – you –"

"What did I do?" Camilla said.

Combo blinked. "I – you did something. I dunno what, but something."

_The Toriyama children were going back to school soon. They'd survived all these Skull attacks. _

And Combo was lurking in the garage, feeling lonely. He'd never had anyone to talk to since Coin died. He missed Grind City, and he missed his friend.

"Let go of me!" Gum screamed at the Rhinos. Something had happened. She had to get to that control panel and stop the machine!

"Gum, when I go, I won't have made the virus that brought you here," Tab said suddenly. 

"So where will I be?"

"Back in your own time, I guess. Till Future Gum goes."

"You have no sense of timing," Yo-Yo said to Future Gum. "Couldn't we have got it on some time in the last five years _before_ we confronted the Rokkaku maniacs?"

Past Gum heard Combo laugh, a laugh which suddenly stopped. She stared at him as he flickered, wanting his strength to keep him here – but – 

_The GGs stared at the record pieces they'd got from the three gangs._

"What the hell is it?" Gum asked.

"No idea. And I don't think we're really gonna be able to find out," Tab sighed.

Two days later the Assassins struck Tokyo.

Gum watched the four GGs. Herself. Beat. Tab. Yo-Yo. The only friends she had back five years ago – and Yo-Yo? More than a friend? She stared at them again and again –

Beat's image was flickering, like she was looking at him through tears.

__

"No!" she yelled at the same time Tab did.

Beat looked over to Tab – smiled –

No one was there.

_Professor K blinked. Something had changed…_

Suddenly he realised he sounded like he'd forgotten what to say. And he hadn't, this was obvious.

"And in the south, from Shibuya-cho, city of the daylight – it's those troublemaking punks, the Love Shockers!"

Gum shook her head to clear it, and stared at the red-headed kid sitting next to her future self. "Who the hell are you?"

"Who the hell are you?" he retorted. "What's going on?"

"Someone's changed the past…" Tab's eyes narrowed under his hat…

What happened to his Noise Tank uniform?

What Noise Tank uniform? He's always worn that boiler suit.

I've got to get free, Gum thought, dismissing the detail of Tab's clothes. I've got to save Tab, he's my oldest friend…and me…and that other guy, I don't know him, but…

She concentrated, raised a foot, and drove her skate backwards into the first Rhino's groin.

He yelled, let go of her, she swung, gathered up her fear and fury and punched the other one.

Then she ran for the control panel.

"No!" She heard Camilla's heels clattering on the shiny floor as the woman rushed towards her. She'd reached the control panel. The mass of buttons swirled in front of her eyes, she didn't know what to do…

"Get her!" Onishima roared.

She felt Camilla grab her round the throat, struggled, her hand scraped along the buttons, switches flicked…

"Gum," Tab yelled, "You're going, so am I, so's the other dude, good luck –"

Gum looked down at her hand, saw it start to fade, she elbowed Camilla away from her, slammed her fist down on a random button…


	15. Time Warp

Chapter Fifteen – Time Warp

(Thanks for r+ring the last chapter! JSR, GGs, Goji, etc, are not © me. Camilla and Koji are, sort of (although Koji's name is © NT13)).

Cold.

So cold she knew there was nothing. She was nothing.

***

No. 

Something.

Hand slamming down on a control panel. Her hand? Was it? Did she even have hands now? A click as a button was pressed. A subtle change in the humming around her. Someone screaming.

***

Darkness. 

She blinked, blinked again.

Cold. So cold.

And far away, a small square of light, a slide photo, tiny buildings like charred sticks against a minuscule white sky.

She squinted at it. 

It was bigger now, normal photo sized. 

Now a painting.

Now a movie screen.

And now rushing up, to fill her vision.

She closed her eyes as it reached her.

But no impact. At last she opened them again. The sky lay above her, colourless like dead skin.

She didn't know where she was. But she was somewhere at least. 

Silent, so silent it rang in her ears. 

She sat up, felt frozen ground brush her hands, stared at them. They were hers. She tried to move them, and watched as the fingers twitched. 

Where was she? Who was she?

She looked around. The ground was frozen, muddy, stretching away from her. Those buildings loomed. And it was still so quiet. There was no one else around.

"Hello?" she called.

Only an echo.

She reached out to push herself up on a twisted railing.

Somehow she missed, and sprawled onto the ground. She tried again, and the same thing happened.

Wait.

She held up her hand, and brought it down towards the railing.

And then she screamed. Screamed and screamed until black rushed over her eyes again and the cold came back and swallowed her.

***

"Gum? Are you okay?"

Her own voice, talking to…

…her…

"Yeah…" She saw herself, gazing down at her, long blonde hair flicked round her face by the icy breeze…identical face…eyes containing all the thoughts and feelings and ideas she'd ever had…

Falling into herself…

She closed her eyes.

"I think you're freaking her out," another voice said. Tab's voice. "Gum? Past Gum? Come on, wake up."

"I am awake."

That was what she wanted to say, but her voice slurred and she could only mutter it.

"Why is she here anyway?" her future self asked. 

"I'll try and explain later…when I got an idea myself…" Tab sighed. She heard footsteps crunching on the ground she was lying on. Cold ground. Frozen mud. Yes, she remembered that.

"Gum," Tab said, "look at me."

She forced her eyes open, and the chilly white light hit them, pounding the back of her skull.

Tab was leaning over her, looking worried. She sat up a little, and saw the other GGs, standing around her.

"What's going on?" she said. 

"I think…" Tab said. "Now don't freak out on me – I think we're ghosts."

"What?"

"We don't exist any more. We're out of time."

Gum leapt to her feet, ignoring the throbbing in her skull. "But – but if we're ghosts, that means we're – we're –"

"Dead. Yeah." 

Hadn't her hand passed through a railing? Hadn't that happened? What the hell had happened?

Well, she knew one thing.

"This isn't happening," she said at last. She paced the ground, the fear making it too hard to keep still. "This can't be happening! I'm not a ghost! We all look alive, don't we?"

"Yeah. But you just walked through a railing," Slate said. He was standing with Piranha, who was carrying Mari.

Gum stared down at the railing, which was buckled and scorched, and then at her feet.

Then she stepped back a little.

Neither her feet nor the railing went transparent. It was just they didn't seem to touch each other.

Just like before.

"Oh, shit…" Gum felt her ribs tighten around her lungs. She struggled for breath, her vision wobbling. It hadn't been a dream. It hadn't been a dream…

"Don't panic," Tab said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "We're all here. I think you might have saved us from being deleted for good."

"How?"

"I think you pressed a button that said…I don't know…erase them from time, but store them…let them stay in the world…but cos they're deleted, they'll be ghosts, as they don't exist any more."

"What, all of that on one tiny button?"

"You know what I mean. We're still in the time machine's memory."

"Where are we, anyway?" Gum stared round again, noting more details this time. They were standing in a bare open space, surrounded by shells of burnt-out buildings. The ground had once been covered in tarmac, but much of the tarmac had been torn up, leaving only a few freckly patches. 

Forming a rough square were other scorched railings, like the one Gum had walked through. A bus skeleton lay on its side a few feet away, surrounded by slivers of broken glass. 

It was still cold.

And it was still completely silent.

No Jet Set Radio. Just static.

"Yes…" Tab shuffled his feet. "That's the bit I'm worried about, too."

"Can't you see?" Mew said. She stood with her arms wrapped around her body, goose pimples rising on her skin. "This is Shibuya bus terminal."

"What?" the other GGs yelled.

"I ought to know. I've been catching a bus here for the last five years. Look. The railings. The bus wreck. That's where the bridge would be. There's the café…" She pointed to one of the burnt-out shop fronts. "This is Shibuya all right."

"But – but – but what's happened?" Cube said.

"Cube – you're talking again?" Gum said.

Cube shrugged. "My head's like a fucking fireworks display. If I close my eyes, I get hit with about ten different pasts and they're all equally shit. I'd rather speak."

"I think I figured it."

They turned to look at Beat. 

"We don't exist. Right?"

"Right," everyone chorused.

"So we never were the GGs. Right?"

"Right."

"And what are the GGs famous for?"

"Treading on everyone's toes," Yo-Yo muttered.

Gum tried to keep her mind on the situation, and not on how nice Yo-Yo was to look at. Dammit, why was he so cute?

"Apart from that."

"Savin' the city from Goji's giant rhino," Combo said.

There was a long pause, while eleven pairs of eyes took in the emptiness around them, and Mari buried her face in her mother's shoulder.

"You don't think…" Future Gum stopped.

"Yeah. I do." Beat sighed. "We didn't save the world, and this is what happened."

"So what are we gonna do?" Future Gum asked.

"Well…uh…Tab, what're we gonna do?"

"Hmm?" Tab, who had been studying the horizon, turned. "Oh. In the short term, or as a major plan?"

"Both."

"Our major plan should be getting ourselves reanimated as living beings. No objections? Good. So in the short term we should hunt for Rokkaku towers, seeing as that's where all the shit is emanating from."

"But what if it's not here any more?" Mew asked.

"Oh, I don't think that's a problem. Look behind you."

They turned.

Gum felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise, tingling her skin. If this was a movie, they'd have that rising orchestra music when the good guys confront the bad guy's absolutely humungous spaceship/city/tower base.

An enormous skyscraper stood over the city, dotted with tiny white windows. If Gum squinted, she could just made out the Rokkaku symbol on the front. 

Rokkaku Towers – the one they were familiar with – had been big. This building was – well, it was just too big to comprehend. 

"I'm scared," Mew said.

"Tell me about it," Tab said. "Come on. Let's start walking."

***

Cube walked alone.

She was trying to focus on external things. The hard ground. The echoing every sound made. The cold. 

Because if she didn't – if she thought for a moment – 

_"No…no, please, stop it, no…"_

She remembered her and Garam going to join the Skulls. And she remembered going on her own, and going out with Saburo ever since because she didn't have a boyfriend, and what he'd done to her, and how she'd let him…

Wrists held above her head… 

She remembered Combo finding her in Benten-cho, and she remembered lying there alone till daybreak and getting picked up by the cops then…

Truncheons breaking her face…

She remembered coming to Tokyo-to and joining the GGs, and she remembered staying in Grind City because there was no one anywhere else to help them…

Shards of record, broken, scattered across the floor…

Coin died. Saburo stopped her calling out. And she was always, always alone.

"Cube?"

She looked round. Garam was coming towards her.

"Look, I'm sorry…I mean, I thought you got my message."

"What message?"

"I told Saburo to tell you to meet me in the factory yard the night I quit."

"You – you didn't just leave me?"

"No." Garam kicked at the ground. His toe sank through the frozen mud.

They walked on in silence for a few minutes more. Cube glanced up at the huge Rokkaku building above them, and gulped.

"Did he…" Garam stopped. "Did you…did you want…"

"Is this about Saburo?"

"Yeah. You cheated on me with him. Didn't you."

"Yes." Cube heard tears rise up in her voice.

"Oh, man."

"I'm sorry," Cube said.

"Me too."

I didn't want him, she wished she could say. He hurt me.

But that would sound stupid. _It wasn't my fault._

She'd encouraged him, hadn't she? 

"So, I guess we're…we're breaking up, then," she said.

"Yeah."

Cube wanted to say something meaningful, something that would break through the shields Garam seemed to have put up around himself, but she couldn't think what. So she just shrugged, and said, "I'm sorry."

"That's okay. Hey, Cube?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's tell Past Gum to tell past us not to go join the Skulls."

Cube nodded, and watched Garam walk away.

***

"The only good thing about hopping forward five years before was that the city hadn't changed," Past Gum muttered.

"Hey, chill," Yo-Yo said. "We'll fix this. Make it all like it was before."

"You really think we'll be able to?" Future Gum said from Yo-Yo's other side. 

"We're the GGs. We always win."

"We're also dead," Past Gum said.

"Meh. Okay, there is that. But come on. We'll find a solution. Just like I've found a solution to the whole problem of there being two of you."

"Huh?" both Gums said.

"Duh. Threesome!"

Past Gum smiled at Future Gum, and then they each raised a hand and smacked Yo-Yo across the head.

"You haven't matured one bit in five years, have you?" Past Gum said.

"Nope. But look on the bright side. When Past Gum gets back to her time zone –"

"If."

"Whatever…if she does, then, she can start going out with past me. And then that'll leave me and Future Gum to – uh – commit to each other."

"Wow, you said the C-word," Future Gum said. "I still haven't said if I want a boyfriend or not. There's the snoring…"

"The belching…" Past Gum said.

"The getting drunk and going out and coming back in at three a.m. singing Grace And Glory…"

"The going to strip clubs and saying you thought it was a library…"

"The –"

Yo-Yo grabbed Future Gum's shoulders and kissed her hard on the lips. Then he turned to Past Gum and did the same thing.

"There," he said. "Zip it, please."

Past Gum felt her heart rate speed up into one long blur, and grinned. 

***

"Hey, Cube?"

Combo swallowed as he hurried up to her.

"Yeah?"

"Look – uh, you know that night, whenever it was cos time don't really have much meaning any more, anyway, uh, I upset you…"

"Yeah?" She didn't look at him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't've done that to you, and…I'm sorry, okay?"

Cube turned. She was smiling.

"Thank you," she said, and hugged him. 

Combo forced his arms to remain at his sides as her smooth skin brushed his neck.

"Look," she said. "At the moment I don't want any…you know. Any, well, guy and girl stuff. I mean…"

"I think I get it."

"If you were just my friend, then maybe…well, we could see how it went. If we get alive again, of course."

Combo swallowed. This whole not-being-alive thing was freaking him out. They were still here, right? 

But dead. Ghosts.

He shivered, and said, "I know. I mean, I get it. Friends?"

"Friends."

Cube put her hand in his. 

"Cube," he said. "You scared?"

"About the ghost thing? No. Not really. I'm scared of all the possibilities in my head. But maybe being a ghost is better for me." Her face hardened. "All I do is hurt."

"You being a ghost is only good if I'm a ghost. Otherwise it's shit."

Cube smiled. "If you say so."

"Why've you got all these pasts in your head? I ain't got them. I don't think, anyway."

Cube shrugged. "They all suck. So they've all warped me. I guess." She stared up at the empty sky.

"I want to go back," she said. "I want to go back and not do what I did. I wish I hadn't done it."

Combo ran his fingers over the bones of her hand. "I know," he said. "But we got a chance to change some things. Maybe you'll get lucky."

"And if we don't?" she said. "If we're stuck as ghosts?"

"Then we walk de earth together."

"You mean it?" Cube stared up at him, eyes fierce. "You won't leave me? If we're stuck here for eternity, you won't leave?"

"You think I'm gonna let a little thing like deletion from time stop me from sticking wid ya? Come on, Cube. You know me better'n that."

"Thanks, Combo." Cube turned to stare up at the Rokkaku building. "I hope you're telling the truth."

***

The GGs clustered around the doorway of the Rokkaku tower. 

The old tower had had the wide marble steps up to the glass-fronted door and the intercom and the minimalist porch.

This tower had a barrier checkpoint and a solid steel door twice as high as Combo.

"Someone's paranoid," Mew said.

None of the soldiers around – who wore black armbands with red Rokkaku symbols on – had challenged them or even seemed to notice them. Which was good, Past Gum reflected. In the short term. 

In the long term, it was bad. They really didn't exist.

"Can we walk through walls?" Yo-Yo asked as they stared up at the door.

"Let's try." Beat skated forward, towards it.

And disappeared.

"Woah," Garam muttered. "Hey, Beat, you in there?"

Beat stuck his head out of the door. "Yup. It works all right."

"Beat, your head is floating in midair," Future Gum said. "Stop it, you're freaking me out."

"Then get your butt in here!" Beat disappeared back through the door.

Past Gum skated forward. As the door loomed up in front of her, she put her hands out to stop herself crashing – 

And they went through, skin tingling.

She stumbled forward into a glaring white hallway.

Beat stood, leaning against a desk lined with what looked like bulletproof glass. Behind the glass sat a receptionist, who looked worryingly hard-bitten. And standing around the room were more Rokkaku soldiers.

"Boy, he _is _paranoid," Gum whispered as the other GGs piled through the door.

"Gum, you don't need to whisper," Beat said. "We're ghosts, remember? None of them can hear us."

His voice echoed in the hallway – and nobody batted an eyelid.

Gum swallowed. 

"Where're we gonna go?" Slate asked. He was carrying Mari now, who was asleep.

"We need to see if they've still got the time machine," Tab said. "If they have, we can…I don't know…see if we can use it."

"How? We can't touch anything."

"Look, we'll work on that," Beat said, pushing himself off the desk. "Now think. If you were an evil genius, where would you keep all your stuff?"

"I don't reckon they're going to give us a guidebook, are they," Mew said.

"And this place is huge," Cube said. "We don't have time to search…"

"Actually, we have all the time in the world," Tab said. "We're not gonna age any more…"

"Shut up!" Mew wailed. "I don't like hearing stuff like that!"

"Calm down," Tab said. "Come on. Let's stick together, and go look."

***

It took an hour before they found anything. An hour of searching floor after floor of laboratories and barracks and offices and machinery. An hour in which everyone started to get increasingly nervous. Maybe they _wouldn't _be able to get back…

And then they reached the top floor. 

Goji was sitting in a wide, wood-panelled office, surrounded by elegant bookcases. He was typing on the computer, his sharp fingers moving surprisingly quickly.

Past Gum caught her breath. He was alive. 

She grabbed hold of the distant memory of him…paint-spattered, snarling, eyes glinting behind his glasses like lightning on rain…and that music echoing around them as the storm raged…and his black-and-white figure shrieking as it plummeted towards the ground…

Now he sat, his suit and tie neatly pressed and fitting him exactly, his dark beard and moustache trimmed, face thoughtful as he stared at the screen.

Then he glanced up for a moment, and Gum gasped. 

His eyes burned. 

"He's still crazy," she said. "Are you positive he can't hear us?"

"How can he?" Beat said. "We're dead."

"Stop saying that!" Mew hissed.

Tab walked round to see what Goji was typing.

"What is it?" Gum asked, keeping her voice low.

"Don't know. Some sort of maths thing. I think."

Gum looked at the rudies clustered in the office. They didn't look right. They looked out of place. They looked surreal.

Suddenly the office door flew open. Goji looked up, eyes narrowed, then relaxed as he saw who it was who had come in.

Gum recognised the intruder. Koji Rokkaku, his black hair rumpled, wearing a suit she was pretty sure cost as much as a year's supply of spray paint.

"Father," he said, "can I talk to you?"

"Koji, you know you are supposed to enter this office _after _the secretary has buzzed me."

"Exactly! We're living on tenterhooks here, how do we know Canada or Britain or China won't mount a full-scale attack?"

"Canada and Britain and China will fall as the USA and Japan did," Goji said. The computer keys clicked. 

Surely he'll see there's eleven other people in here, Gum thought. Surely.

"Oh, for god's sake, why can't you just give up? You've wrecked my life and you've wrecked Ca–"

"Silence!" Goji roared, leaping to his feet and through Tab, who had been leaning over his shoulder. "You know my feelings on the latter issue you mentioned –"

"Issue?" Koji snorted. "She's your daughter!"

Goji drew a deep breath like he was just managing to hold onto his temper. "Koji. I will not speak of this subject again. And as for giving myself up – I have no need to do that. I'm in control _I'm in control. _You're in the most powerful family in the world, and you should be damn grateful."

"Grateful?" Koji said. "Why should I be grateful? You've destroyed my inheritance. No one will ever trust this family again. Now when you snuff it, what have I got?"

"Two of the greatest countries in the world in your power," Goji said coolly. "And while I live – Koji, you've got everything you want in this tower. All your basic needs provided for. All the latest technology. All –"

"I don't want countries and technology!" Koji yelled. "I – I want freedom, I want to be proud of my family, and I want my sister back!"

"Get out."

Goji's eyes narrowed. They roared with flame. Gum felt Yo-Yo grip her hand.

"Get out right now," Goji snarled. 

Koji stared at him, looking like an angry child. 

Then he turned, walked through Mew, and out of the office.

Goji gave a low growl, and sat back down, and started typing again, stabbing at the keys.

"So – what's happened to Camilla, then?" Garam said at last.

"Japan and the US are taken over…by him?" Cube swallowed.

"Come on. Let's follow Koji." Beat hurried out into the corridor. The others followed.

Koji had just reached the lift. The GGs crowded inside, and they began to descend.

Mew ran a finger down Koji's face, and the Rokkaku put his hand to his cheek.

"He felt it?" Cube said.

"Maybe he felt the air currents or something," Tab said.

"You could try pinching him," Yo-Yo said.

Mew gave him a look. 

"I just meant on the arm, okay?"

"I know." Mew flicked her fingers against Koji's forehead, and he winced. Only slightly, but he'd noticed.

"So…we're not totally transparent, are we?" Future Gum said. "That's cool. I think."

"But that doesn't make sense," Beat said. "If we don't exist, how can we affect this world?"

"Maybe it's because we _used _to exist," Tab said. "Or something. I don't know."

The lift ground to a halt, and Koji stepped out. He began walking down the corridor, which was empty, and seemed to be a dead end.

"What's he doing here?" Mew said.

No one answered.

Koji reached the end of the wall. Hanging on it was a large Japanese print of a woman in a red kimono. Koji swung the picture back to reveal a computer terminal, and started to type.

Tab read over his shoulder, "Still no progress. He won't listen and he won't even mention you. I'm really sorry. I hope you're okay."

Koji hit the Enter key, and slid the picture back over the terminal. Then he turned and walked back to the lift.

"Let's see what's behind the wall," Beat said.

"What if you walk out into thin air?" Tab said.

"I'm already dead."

"Yeah, but you could still break your legs –"

Beat walked through the wall.

There was a pause, then he stuck his head back out, and said, "Guys, move it."

The other GGs followed him through.

It wasn't thin air. It was a small bedroom, the walls bare, no door. A woman sat on the bed, studying a computer terminal set into the wall. As the GGs entered the room, she sighed, and bit her lip.

She had long, tangled dark hair, and she was wearing a simple red dress with a knee-length hem. Her feet were bare, and she had large blue eyes, which at the moment were filled with rage.

"Fine," she hissed at the computer screen. "Fine. Let him hate me. He can't keep me here forever. Can he? Well, duh, Camilla, of course he can. And he will. He'll keep you locked up in a room with no door until you go stark raving mad. Maybe I am mad. Oh, shit…"

"Looks like we found the missing Rokkaku," Beat said.

"Don't look like she's got much time travel on her agenda, does it?" Cube said. She looked concerned.

"You're right. I haven't."

Past Gum jumped. Camilla was staring at them. Not through them. At them.

"Well, come on," she said. "Aren't you going to introduce yourselves?"


	16. Murderers

Chapter Sixteen – Murderers

(Camilla and Koji are © me, Koji's name is © NT13. The Assassins' names are ©…uh…I think it's NT13 again, but it's not me. Please r+r!)

Cube swallowed. Camilla could see them. She could _see _them.

All the time they'd been sneaking around the Rokkaku complex she'd been calm. Telling herself that no one could find them anyway. Because they couldn't be seen.

And now…

"Introduce ourselves?" Garam snapped. "Lady, you put us like this."

"I don't know you," Camilla said. She stood up, folded her arms. With her loose hair and bare feet she looked a lot younger than she had when they'd last seen her.

"We're ghosts," Beat said. "Ghosts of rudies you erased from time. Because you did that, we never saved the world from your dad's rhino demon, and so this is why things are like they are."

Camilla touched her forehead like she had a headache. "Great. I'm hallucinating. That's what this is."

"No," Tab said. "We know we're real. I guess you're in a heightened state of awareness due to your fragile mental state, and that's why you can see us. Koji sensed us, but he wasn't miserable enough."

Camilla stared at them, eyes wide. 

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Beat said. "Why are you hidden like this?"

Camilla shivered, her black hair rippling like an oil slick. "My father put me here."

"That's pretty shit," Combo said. "Why?"

"I knew what he was planning, with the Devil's Contract." Camilla sat down, tucking her feet underneath her. "I tried to talk him out of it, and first he cajoled me and then he threatened to send the Assassins after me if I didn't keep out of it."

"Didn't Koji back you up?" Future Gum asked.

"He thought nothing would happen. That father was just being eccentric. So I decided to work in secret. I thought of telling someone, but who'd believe me? And if they did, father would be arrested, or killed…" She shivered. "He's still my family."

"So what did you do?" Tab asked.

"I had been developing a way of changing time…I thought I could alter things, make it so that father never heard of the Devil's Contract. He didn't notice me working, he thought I liked science. No one except Koji knew the truth."

Cube watched as Camilla closed her eyes and sighed.

"Then we got to the night he planned to play the record. It was stormy, and I was in the lab. I was getting so close…and then that music started."

Grace And Glory. Cube heard it echoing in her ears like a distorted heart monitor. 

"The Assassins came in. They made me stop."

Her eyes were fixed on the edge of the wall behind them, but Cube knew she wasn't really seeing it. 

"My father came. He told me he was going to take all my work away, give it to another scientist, one he could trust…Goji Rokkaku with a time machine…well, you can imagine. I suppose."

"He hasn't got one, has he?" Tab swallowed.

"No." Camilla smiled. Her eyes glittered. "I smashed up everything I'd made. I pushed the machine off the table, onto the floor…broke it with a chair. Then I burnt all my notes on a Bunsen burner. Everything. Months of work and I burnt it. Just as I finished the Assassins were there."

She shivered, bit one curved lip.

" 'Oh, dear, little girl. Daddy's gonna be real mad when he finds out what you did.' 

"And he was. Hell, he was."

She looked up, and the fear dropped back. 

"So. Here I am."

We must have stopped him from seeing what she'd done, Cube thought. Or coming back to lock her up. Or something. 

"So…we're stuck," Future Gum said at last. "We're stuck as ghosts."

"Why?" Camilla asked.

"We got no way to change time, have we? We can't go back and fix what _you _did. So we're ghosts and you're trapped. Thanks a bunch."

"Excuse me? I've got no idea who you are!" Camilla yelled. "Don't blame me!"

"You're the science babe," Yo-Yo said. "Is there anything we can do? Any way of changing time?"

Camilla shrugged. "Not unless my father has built something. If someone else realised the same thing I did, they could build one."

"Then we'd better go search the building again," Beat said. "Any ideas on where the science labs are?"

Camilla gave them directions, and they walked out of the room and back through the wall.

"This sucks," Garam said. "This really, really sucks."

"Oh, shut up!" Future Gum snapped. "We know it sucks. We don't need you telling us."

"Hey, get off my case!" Garam said.

"Why should she?" Past Gum demanded. "She's only telling you the truth."

"Oh, give me a break, double act."

"That's right," Past Gum said. "Don't listen. You never listen to the truth. You're just blocking out the fact you're a jerk, and you're just blocking out the fact you're a killer."

Cube heard herself gasp. It felt like they'd ripped away her skull and gashed her brain.

"Leave it out," Garam snarled. 

"Why the hell should I?" both Gums said.

"You're guilty, aren't you?" Past Gum said.

"Shut up!" Garam yelled. "Just shut up!"

He turned and ran.

"Garam, wait!" Beat yelled after him, but he didn't stop, dashing through the wall and vanishing.

"Oh, way to go," Slate snapped. 

"Hey, they're right," Yo-Yo said.

"You're just saying that cos you want your threesome," Slate said.

"No, I'm not! Garam's a killer, ain't he?"

"Guys, cool down," Tab said. "What he did don't matter, and besides, in this universe, he isn't a killer. He never existed."

Cube swallowed. Yes. Him – and her – hadn't done anything. Not this time.

"How can you say it didn't matter?" Past Gum yelled. "He – killed – people. _That _doesn't matter?"

"Gum, leave it," Tab said.

"Why the hell should I? So he had trauma. We all had trauma, why the hell should he have a fucking license to go slaughter people?"

Cube glanced at the red kimono lady picture. 

The red was running out of the kimono.

Onto the frame.

Out of it.

Down the white-painted wall.

She didn't want to look. But her eyes wouldn't move. None of her would. She just had to keep staring.

"Shut up," Combo said. "You don't know what happened, just keep your damn mouth shut."

"Yeah," Mew said, glancing at Cube. "This isn't a good time."

"There is no time!" Piranha yelled. "We don't have time! We're stuck like this for ever!"

"Don't," Mew said. "Just don't."

"Why not? We're all going on 'bout facing facts, let's face this one! We're dead!"

The blood was pooling on the ground now. It had stained the lady's long white neck and fingers. Cube wanted to scream, but if she moved it would sense she was there, drag her down. 

Mari blinked, opened her eyes, and started to cry.

"Mummy…" she wailed. "I want to go home."

"I know, honey."

"I want to go home _now…"_

Cube swallowed. The blood was rising. Oozing over her skates. She could smell it now, meaty, making her think of dissection and glistening. The scent was strangling her.

"Gum," Tab said, "please, just stop talking. Please."

Future Gum nodded, but Past Gum snapped, "Just quit getting on my case!"

"Shut up!" Combo, Tab and Future Gum all yelled. 

Gum's face contorted with fury, and she screamed, _"You _shut up! You…" She pointed to Future Gum. "You're just trying to be maturer than me, you…" She glared at Tab. "You're trying to play God, and you…" She turned to face Combo. "You're just defending Cube, and say what you like she's a murderer, and from what I heard, she's a sadistic monster as well!"

Then she turned on her heel and marched through the wall.

_Monster._

Cube's vision turned red. The GGs became black silhouettes against crimson light.

She blinked. Nothing happened.

Combo was saying something to her, but she couldn't hear him. She closed her eyes, but there was red behind them as well. Surrounding her. Just waiting for her to make a mistake. Just waiting to drown her.

***

Combo stared helplessly at Cube. She wasn't listening to him. She stood, frozen, eyes locked shut. 

Suddenly he heard footsteps, and saw the lift doors open.

And two familiar figures stepped out.

"I don't know why Goji's bothering," one of them said. "She is nothing but crazy. He should leave her behind that wall."

Combo stared at him, and Bantam Street rose in his memory…hot dog carts…trains rattling over his head…a whip cracking the dusty, sunlit ground…

The man wore a suit and sunglasses and his head was covered with a checked scarf. Now Combo was glad Cube had her eyes shut. He didn't want her to see this guy.

"Yeah, but he wants her to build his time machine, doesn't he?" the other man sneered. "Even if she is nuts, she might be useful, remember something."

Combo shivered. He'd heard his voice before, when it had cut over Jet Set Radio… 'I've just set a bomb in the city…' And screams had mingled with the words… 

Assassins. He heard Mew gulp.

"You think she has?" Assassin #5 said as he pushed back the picture and typed something into the terminal.

"Heh…she won't be too happy. Come on, Whiplash, she's been walled up in there for five years, if that happened to me I'd be loony by now."

Whiplash snorted. "Molotov, you are loony."

He finished typing, and stepped back.

The wall sank into the floor. Camilla was sitting on her bed, staring fixedly at her hands.

"Hey, Miss Rokkaku," Molotov murmured. "Daddy wants to see you."

She jumped, stared up at them with eyes that looked too young for her face. They dragged her to her feet and marched her off towards the lift. Behind them, the wall rose up again, hiding Camilla's room.

Molotov was staring back as it did. His eyes slid over the invisible rudies.

And stopped.

Combo felt sweat pool on the back of his neck. Molotov was watching him. Molotov could see him. But how?

"Come on," Beat said. "Let's follow them."

Molotov smiled.

Combo put a hand on Cube's shoulder and gently guided her towards the lift. She still didn't open her eyes, but she reached round and clutched his hand.

The eight GGs piled into the lift with Camilla and the two Assassins. Camilla was trembling. Combo was finding it hard to believe she was the same woman who'd taunted them all before. 

Whiplash couldn't see them, Combo was pretty sure. He stared straight ahead. Molotov…well, he was still smiling. And he was glancing round the lift, and never stopping smiling, a sort of I-know-something-you-don't-know smile…

And Camilla? Combo couldn't tell. Her eyes flicked from side to side to take in the Assassins, she didn't seem to notice the GGs. But then, that was understandable. Combo was watching the Assassins too.

The lift stopped and everyone walked out, back along the corridor to Goji's office. There were no windows anywhere here, but far away, dimly, Combo heard a snarl of thunder.

Goji was standing in front of his desk, very straight, looking grim. Koji was lounging against the adjacent wall, arms folded. When he saw Camilla, he rushed over to her, but Goji coughed fiercely, and his son stopped.

Sitting round the office were four more familiar figures. Combo counted them off in his mind. One, the gigantic ninja who'd stood guard in Benten. Two, the winged killer who'd shot bullets off the Kogane rooftops. Three, the gas-masked pyromaniac, with a laugh like crackles of flame. And Six, the glittering electric thug who'd hurled lumps of sparks at him and Cube in Grind Square.

He swallowed as Molotov and Whiplash let go of Camilla and took their places around the room. Molotov was still watching the GGs. Combo put an arm round Cube. Her shoulder blades curved under her Skull T-shirt like pieces of sculpture. He tried not to notice them.

Camilla stood on the rich red carpet, her bare feet sinking into it. She raised her head, pushed back her tangled hair, and stared into her father's eyes.

"Well?" she said.

"You will tell me all the information that you destroyed." Goji ground out the words like he didn't want to be speaking them.

"What happened to 'hello, my only daughter, it's so nice to see you again?'"

"You are not my daughter," Goji said. "You betrayed me."

"If I hadn't, I don't want to think about how many people you'd have killed by now. What's wrong? The world's best scientists can't fix time travel?"

"You're the only one who knows the secret," Goji said. "And you're going to tell me it, do you hear?"

"No."

More thunder. Combo wished they could rip the roof off this place. It was too stuffy. Too much recycled air. 

He glanced at Molotov, and their eyes met.

Smirking, the Assassin drew a finger across his throat.

Combo felt his stomach lurch, and closed his eyes a moment. When he opened them, Molotov was watching Goji again.

"Don't make me hurt you," Goji said.

"You can't kill me," Camilla said, her voice shaking. 

"No. But I can make you tell. I need you to tell."

"Koji, do something!" Camilla ran towards her brother, gripped his arm. She looked even more pathetic next to him. "Help me! Please, help me!"

"Father, please," Koji said, glancing at the ground. "Don't do this."

"Neither of you can stop me!" Goji slammed a fist down onto the table behind him. "You're children, nothing more! I am going to get what I need and then I am going to use it, _do you hear me?"_

"You're crazy!" Camilla screamed.

Cube tensed into Combo's arms, like someone had electrified her.

"Are you going to tell me or not?" Goji said, slowly, darkly.

"No! No, I'm not! You and your stooges can go to hell!"

Camilla drew a breath that was trembling as much as she was. 

Combo heard the faint signal of rain pattering on the roof.

"I see." Goji's face sharpened. He nodded to the Assassins.

Cube blinked, and her eyes shone in the strip lights. She looked up at Combo a moment – then saw the Assassins, and swallowed. 

Then her eyes narrowed.

"Koji!" Camilla yelled. "Help me!"

"I –"

Camilla turned, screamed at the GGs, "Do something! You said you were from another future! You could help me! Please!" They'd grabbed her now, were marching her out of the room. Combo felt sick, he knew what the Assassins could do –

Cube broke out of his arms, and ran towards Goji. 

"You pig!" she screamed. "You snake! You sick, twisted freak!"

She slapped him. Her hand passed through his face. Goji touched his cheek, looking baffled.

"Did you hear something?" he asked Koji.

Cube gasped for breath, her face ringing with fury. "You let her go right now!" she screamed at Goji, then marched over to his son, and shouted, "Don't let him get away with this!"

"Father, you can't do this!" Koji said suddenly. He marched forward and pulled Camilla free from the Assassins. "She's family. You can't do it."

"She's not family," Goji said, his eyes blazing. "She gave up that honour five years ago –"

"Honour?" Camilla cried. "You call being the daughter of a murdering villain an honour?"

"You were a Rokkaku. And you betrayed me."

"You think I care one bit about being a Rokkaku?" Camilla yelled as Molotov grabbed her wrist. "I don't! I hate it! I think our family sucks, I think we're crazy, and I think you're the worst of all!"

She spat at Goji's feet.

He looked at her, and his eyes roared with rage. 

"Kill her," he hissed. "Take her away and kill her as painfully as you can manage. You're good at that. Kill her."

"Father, you can't!" Koji yelled. "I won't let you!"

_"You _won't let me?"

Suddenly Goji stopped. 

"What – what are all these people doing in here?" he said.

"You can see them too?" Molotov said. 

"There. And there…and there…" Goji indicated various GGs. "What's going on? They look like a bunch of kids…"

"I can't see anything," Whiplash said.

"There's…" Koji squinted. "There is something. I think…"

"This isn't good, is it?" Mew said. 

"I would say – no." Tab looked thoughtful. "On the other hand, we are ghosts."

"Who are you?" Goji demanded.

"Hey, Beat, you're the leader," Garam said. "Do the welcome thing."

"Uh. Um." Beat shuffled his feet. "We're a bunch of people whom your daughter wiped from time in another reality."

"My daughter?" Goji's eyes widened. "You mean – she knew how to manipulate the future?"

"Yeah…" Beat said warily.

"You did it!" Goji swept over to Camilla, gripped her shoulders. "You managed to do something no scientist has done before! Listen, my girl, you could have fame, fortune –"

"Fame? Who'd know? The rats in the Tokyo ruins?" Camilla snorted. "Chill, boss," Molotov said, pulling Camilla forward. "Once me and Napalm've had some fun with her she'll give you all the fame you want."

"Come on," Goji said. "You rubbed all these people out of time. Don't you want to be remembered for that? The opportunity –"

Camilla swallowed. "No. That was wrong."

"You're rudies, aren't you?" Molotov said, scornfully studying the GGs. "Wow. Real important people you wiped, Cam."

"You have a problem with us being rudies?" Slate said. "Hey, we put Goji dude out of business in our reality –"

He stopped.

"I don't think that was a good thing to say," Tab said.

"What?" Goji said, almost laughing. "A bunch of street kids stopped me? I don't think so."

"Accept it," Slate said. "We tagged over all your Rokkaku rooftops and your rhino demon exploded. Then we tagged you right on the top of your shiny bald head. And then – uh – you fell off the roof and died."

"Slate, you give a new meaning to the word 'tactless'," Mew said.

"I don't believe that," Goji said. "I didn't die. I don't die."

"Only cos your daughter cut us out of history," Tab said. "If she hadn't, you'd be a nasty stain on Shibuya sidewalk by now."

Goji snorted. "Listen. Rudies do not kill me. I kill rudies."

Cube gasped.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mew demanded. 

"The stupid rudie who had the record," Goji sneered. "He tried to send it to Tokyo-to. We found that out eventually. Then we killed him. A bullet in the back of the neck did the job quite adequately."

Cube pressed a hand to her mouth. Combo felt dizzy. He hurried over to Cube, she clung to him. Every bone in her body tingled with fury. 

"Well, whatever you like," Beat said, _"we _killed _you. _Accept it."

"Shut up!" Goji roared. "Whatever you did in your life, you don't have one now, you're dead, all of you are dead!"

"Actually, we're not technically dead," Tab said. "We never existed, so we never died."

All the Assassins except Molotov had been looking pretty freaked out during this exchange. 

"That's true," Camilla said. "They are existing in potentia, as it were."

"And you made them like that," Goji said. _"You have that power. _Don't throw it away. Don't."

"Shut up," Camilla snapped. "I don't want to listen to you."

"Just do it," Assassin #2 said. "I mean, think about it, toots. If you do it, you get unlimited fame, glory, blah blah blah. On the other hand if you don't do it, you get unlimited flame, gory, blah blah. It's that simple."

Camilla shuddered.

"All right!" she snapped. "All right, I'll do it!"

Combo swallowed, feeling as if he'd just been dragged down into a cold, dark pool. This couldn't be good.

"Excellent," Goji said. "Take her down to laboratory five. Koji, you come as well. And as for you lot…"

"You can't do anything to us," Mew said. "We're transparent."

"Can't you make them un-transparent?" Goji snarled at his daughter.

"Not at the moment. I don't know if it's possible to put people back into time."

"Then you'd better make it possible. Because I don't want threats hanging around me. When you've done it, we'll make them properly visible, and then we'll kill them. We'll kill them all."


	17. EraseRewind

Chapter Seventeen – Erase/Rewind

(Hi! GGs, Goji, Assassins, Koji, Onishima are not © me, they belong to Sega, as if you didn't know. Everyone else is © me. Banshee, if you're reading this, there's a kiss about halfway through but it's only one sentence long so don't worry. Oh…and this is the last chapter. Enjoy! PS Some of you may feel my knowledge of time travel, engineering, etc, is kind of…patchy. It is. I'm sorry.)

Garam lurked in a corridor somewhere in the Rokkaku building, sulking.

He was dead. He'd broken up with his girlfriend who _had _been sleeping around behind his back. He was trapped in a parallel universe where everything had gone hideously wrong. And all the GGs thought he was a killer.

Well, they're right, his brain muttered. You are. You shot all those cops.

I want to change the past. I want to not have done it.

He started to run down the corridor, past blank-faced Rokkaku staff, breath sobbing in his throat. I want to be different. I want to be not me. I want to get out of this life.

There was a wall rushing up in front of him. He didn't stop.

And he slid through it –

And there was Tokyo-to, a huge patch of scorched ground, and there was him rushing towards it –

The air stung his face. His eyes watered.

This'll kill me, he thought.

Then – well, good.

And he landed.

There was a faint echo of pain in his legs, but nothing more.

Horror rang in his ears. Of course. He was a ghost. He _couldn't_ die. He would never die. He'd be around here forever now. Knowing what he'd done. Knowing he couldn't do anything to change it. 

He shuddered, shuddered all over. Knowing all the bad stuff. It wrapped around him like a snake, brushing his arms and back. He wanted to claw it off and he couldn't because that would mean ripping chunks out of his brain.

_This _was what Cube had felt like?

__

But it was okay for her to feel like that, she tortured all those people, she laughed at them, I just got the job done, just got the job done, just got it done…

I'm as bad as she is.

A flood of horror smashed through his mind, engulfed him, and he shivered, gritting his teeth. Then he couldn't stop.

_Sooner or later you have to pay. Sooner or later everyone will find out what you did._

Why can't I go back? Why can't I change it? There's got to be a way, there's got to.

Well, there's one chance. He pictured Past Gum, but the thought of her made him shudder again. _She'd _seen what he was. What he and Cube were. Why should she want to save them now?

Gum…you were my friend…

So I can't. So it's all happened – only it hasn't really, only in my head. No. That's not any better. Cos I know I can do it. And I don't want to. I want to have thrown down the gun. I mean, thrown it down earlier. Why didn't I? Sure, I couldn't kill Mew, but…I shouldn't have…shouldn't have been able to kill anyone…

And I did.

And it's done. I kidded myself all that time that it wasn't bad, because of what she did. I was never as bad as her.

I was still bad.

"Help me," he yelled. "Someone, help me!"

His voice rang out through the emptiness. Nobody came.

So this was it?

He'd caught a snatch of conversation from Combo and Cube. _We walk the earth together._

That's not my fate. I get to walk it all on my own. This is where it ends, Garam man. Just you, and a seriously smashed-up Tokyo, and the dead. They're dead. 

All dead.

How many had there been? He couldn't remember. Hadn't been so difficult to do and now they were all dead.

All dead. 

Ghostly GGs who could walk through walls.

And he was the deadest of all.

***

Past Gum kicked the wall for the fourth time, and her foot sank through it. 

She felt mean. She hadn't meant to get to Garam like that. The words had just leapt out of her mouth, and then she'd felt backed into a corner…and Future Gum being so damn self-righteous had really pissed her off…

Well, it wasn't like they needed her. They had the sensible Gum. Yo-Yo liked her future self better anyway. Gum felt tears rise in her throat. 

They don't want me around. Fine. I'll just go. I'll just go and they'll never have to see me again.

_They need you._

Gum glowered at the voice in the back of her brain. They do not.

_You're the only one who can save them here. You're the only one who can go back to the right time._

Well…well, why the hell should I? It's not like they're making me want to save them. Her lungs felt choked with rage. I wish they'd just quit getting at me!

_You got at Garam._

"Oh, shut up!" she yelled.

She carried on walking, stamping her feet into the shiny floor. But memories were rising through her brain like smoke. Memories of the GGs. Tab. Beat. Cube. Combo. Piranha. Slate. Mew. Garam.

And Yo-Yo. 

Her friends.

Who were all in deep shit right now.

"All right," she said at last. "All right."

And she turned, and started to retrace her steps.

***

Tab slumped against one of the laboratory walls, feeling his shoulders sink into it, and watched Camilla working. She'd started off looking nervous, glancing at the Assassins, fingers clenched on her tools, but now she'd relaxed. Now she looked like she'd been released back into her own wild.

That couldn't be good. 

The other GGs were sprawled around the room in twos and threes, looking uneasily at Camilla. Tab tried not to realise that this could be the last time he ever saw them. 

"You okay?" 

He turned as Beat dropped down next to him.

"Yeah. Just a bit tense, on account of the whole impending death thing."

"You think she'll do it?"

"Dunno. But if she does, things'll immediately pop back to what they were before."

"Huh?"

"Look. We'll be in the lab after Camilla erased us in the other timeline. Goji will be dead. The Assassins will be in jail."

Beat frowned; his standard I-don't-get-it look. Tab felt a warm ache in his heart – he'd missed that look. 

Reluctantly he dragged his mind back to the situation as Beat said, "But surely Goji's figured that out."

"Yeah, but he'll have to bring us back if he wants to kill us. I imagine it's gonna take some real neat timing, though. If as soon as we come alive again, we get shot, I think he might actually manage to keep himself safe."

"That's not good."

"You're telling me."

Bullets of rain rattled in the distance.

"We might get back," Beat said. "They mightn't manage to shoot us – I mean, they don't know what's gonna happen either, right?"

"And if we do? Either we'll be erased again, and come here, and then unerased, and come there, and erased again, and come here, and just keep doing that for the rest of eternity, or we'll live out all those fun lives Camilla was telling us about."

And in a week's time, you'll be dead.

He didn't want to think about it. It couldn't happen. It couldn't. It would be…it would be _wrong _for him to die now. It wouldn't be fair.

His throat tightened, and he quickly focused on the lights above them, trying to stay calm.

"We'll get out of this," Beat said. "I know we will."

"How? How the hell are we gonna do that? Everyone in every reality wants us out. It's just –"

Beat cut him off with a kiss.

"Stop it," he said at last. "We can do it. We gotta believe that. Even if we're gonna die, Past Gum's still around and if she gets back, she'll save us. All of us."

"Yeah. If she gets back." 

"And even if she don't, we know what's in store for us, so we can try and avoid it. Like, I won't slit my wrists or whatever Camilla said I do. And then you won't need to throw yourself off a bridge."

"Sounds good to me."

Camilla was leaning across the table now, reaching into the heart of the machine. Tab could see how interested she looked. Sure, you say it's evil, he thought, but come on, you just want to see if you can do it, don't you? After all, we're just a bunch of street punks. It doesn't matter what happens to us.

"Well?" Goji demanded. "Can you do it?"

"I think so." Camilla gave him a cool stare. "Where's the guy who worked on this thing?"

"I'll fetch him," Goji said. "But can you get rid of them?" He indicated the GGs.

"I can try."

"Thanks a bunch," Yo-Yo said.

Camilla ignored him. Maybe she couldn't see them any more. She certainly looked less miserable now.

Tab gazed at the machine, and shivered. Say what you like, he thought, I'm no Einstein, I'm just a dumb kid who happens to remember useless information. I can't do anything against Miss Brainiac. I can't do anything, full stop.

But Beat's right. We got to keep hoping. Got to.

If not…

Kogane River, here I come.

***

The day passed. No one really noticed. The laboratory had no windows, and the central heating was working fine.

***

Mew drew her knees up against her chest, and wished something would happen. This waiting was slowly tearing into her sanity. 

And Isas had forgotten her.

No, not forgotten. He didn't know her because there was no one to know. The kissing, the way he'd stroked her hair, his nervousness, his rage, they'd never happened. If he saw her, he'd see a stranger. 

Maybe he was with some other girl right now – she doubled over a little, her forehead brushed her knees, she hadn't expected the thought to hurt so much. 

Maybe he was injured.

Maybe he was dead.

She heard herself sob a little, and bit savagely down on her trembling lip. Get a life, she told herself. Get a life and stop being so stupid! You have to be strong here.

But I can't be. I can't, Isas, I wish you were here…

She rested her head on her knees again as her eyes pooled with tears.

***

Past Gum finally reached the laboratory, where Camilla, hair tied back with a rubber band, face smeared with oil, and eyes gritted with determination, was in fierce conference with four other Rokkaku scientists.

The GGs were slumped around the room, dozing. Gum glanced at her watch, remembered it was wrong, and turned to the clock on the wall. It was 11:55 – at night? She guessed so. 

She sank down on the floor, away from the others, wishing she was back in 2000, where the GGs were safe and Tokyo was whole and none of this had happened. Laughing herself stupid with her gang. Paint on her fingers. Eating pizza when it was dark outside.

"Hey."

She turned to see Yo-Yo drop down next to her.

"What?" she asked.

"You look stressed." He wrapped an arm round her shoulders, and she tried to relax into it. It wasn't easy.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked.

"Don't worry," he said. "We're gonna get back. I was talking to Beat, he was talking to Tab, the timing's tricky but we could make it. You know what to tell Beat if you get back to him okay?"

"Don't go to the meeting with the Love Shocker, and repair that crack in your skate."

"Sweet." Yo-Yo kissed her. Gum felt a jolt of lightning arch down to the bottom of her stomach, and bit her lip to stay in control. Think about what's at stake if this all goes wrong. Yo-Yo getting himself killed. You getting yourself killed. Everyone getting themselves killed.

If she didn't manage this, she'd have failed the GGs.

She was going to manage this. She gritted her teeth.

The Assassins stood straight against the walls, looking like they weren't quite human. Surely no human could have that much stamina.

Camilla flicked hair out of her eyes, reached over to the time machine, which had grown horribly since she'd started working on it, and said, "Okay. This should work."

Silence dropped over the room. 

"Really?" Goji said at last.

"Really," Camilla said, and smiled.

Goji got to his feet, hurried over to her and hugged her. Then he said, "Right. Get rid of the ghosts."

The GGs sat up.

"But there's no data for them," Camilla said. "They don't exist."

"You said you could remove them!" Goji snarled.

"I can try."

"Can she remove us?" Gum hissed to Tab.

He shrugged.

"Hang on." Camilla began to type something into the machine. "Okay. I think I can find the branch-off point. Hang on…"

It was 11:58 now. 

I've got to save them, Gum thought, staring round at the GGs, trying to memorise their faces. The lights flickered, and shadows ran down them like ink.

"Okay." Camilla frowned. "You generated the demon. And…yes, here they are…"

"What's she doing?" Gum asked Tab.

"I think she's finding the alternative future. I'm impressed."

"Okay. I'm going to reanimate them."

"Get ready to dodge, guys," Beat whispered.

Camilla's long fingers stepped from key to key. 

It was 11:59. Time seemed to lengthen. 

The clock stopped.

And the laboratory started to fade like a smoke picture.

Gum heard Goji yell, "Kill them!" Saw the Assassins raise machine guns. Camilla rushed forward. "No, you'll break it!" 

Goji hit her, and she fell, hair flying out round her face. Tab rushed forward, started frantically typing something into the machine…

Bullets pinged around them…Mew stumbled back, red oozing from her forehead…Combo trying to shield Cube as blood speckled his ghetto-blaster…

The scene fading.

Gum dashed behind one of the tables, catching her hip on its corner as she did so. She yelped, and realised she was solid again. 

Shit.

Tab ducked down behind the machine as Molotov fired at him. The bullet hit it. Camilla shrieked with fury, ran towards Molotov and tried to grab his gun.

Fading…fading not quick enough…

Piranha was screaming. Gum didn't want to hear it. Blood on Slate's jacket, and he'd been carrying Mari…

A moment later, the screaming stopped.

I won't look, Gum told herself, I won't, I won't…

Yo-Yo and Future Gum trying to crawl across towards her…

Fading…

The air was full of shots…

Gum wasn't sure which of them got hit first, suddenly they just both rolled over like crippled gymnasts…I can see myself getting shot, she thought, I can see myself dying…

"Gum!" Tab yelled. "You're going back! At each point you stop at, there's something you'll have to change! Good luck, and –"

"Tab, watch out –" Beat called.

And Tab doubled over the control panel as blood spouted from his throat.

"No!" Beat yelled.

"Yes," Molotov said, and shot him through the head.

Gum screamed, tried to run, to stop this, do something, screamed and screamed, but the laboratory melted away at last, and behind it there was nothing but darkness.

Darkness…Gum felt every feeling she'd ever known crush through her ears into her skull, misery, anger, fear, happiness, fury, pain, sadness, surprise, loneliness, disgust, lust, horror…she was drowning, couldn't think, Tab had killed her, he was dead, how dare he, the darkness was trying to come in…

And just as she thought she was going to die, light rushed up and punched her face.

Not much light. A Kogane street. Night time. A group of figures clustered round a torch, the light chopping their faces into shards of gold.

Someone crying.

Gum stepped a little closer. Behind her, she could hear the river lapping at its concrete bank. The air was thick with the smell of old fish. She tried not to breathe too deeply.

But Kogane-cho was here at least. She reached out and touched the wall next to her, and her hand lay flat against it and she could feel the roughness and the fading heat. 

I'm alive, she thought, and began to shiver.

"Geez, quit whining." A girl's voice. "We just take your money and run."

"Let me go…"

A group of rudies. Four dressed in black from head to skates. Two girls, two boys, all dark-haired except for one girl, who had hair the colour of blood. The other figure, crouched against the wall, was a girl, in jeans, pink shirt, and white skates.

For a moment Gum thought it was Suki. But the face was different…the hair brown rather than black…the eyes wider. 

"Why the hell should we?" hissed another girl. Her black hair was pinned up with two rusty skewers, and her face in the torchlight was furious. "You're a traitor to rudies, we know who you are!"

"Hey, Chiyo, cool it," one of the guys said.

"Don't you tell me to fucking cool it, Saburo."

"Guys, please," the red-headed girl said. "Come on. Saburo, have you got her valuables?"

"Yeah. But…"

He pushed the girl back against the wall, and kissed her. 

Gum felt sick with fury as the girl struggled like a dying fish. 

"Saburo!" the red-head said. "Lay off her!"

He looked up, breathing hard as if he'd just been for a swim. "It's all right, Jin. She doesn't mind."

"Like hell she doesn't," the other girl muttered.

"Kellaani…" Saburo shook his head. "Chill out, okay?"

He bent over the girl again like someone diving, Gum heard her sobs grow muffled under his mouth. 

No one out on the streets.

Looked like she had to do something herself.

"Hey, punks, get away from her!" she yelled. It was cold out here, and the air stung her mouth.

The rudies turned. 

"What do you want, bitch?" Jin demanded.

"I want you to tell your over-hormonal gang member to lay off that girl."

"Why the hell should we?" Chiyo spat. "She's a Keisatsu's kid. No – not just _a _Keisatsu. _The _Keisatsu. Onishima Mimi, who thinks she's a rudie and tells her daddy everything."

"I don't…" the girl sobbed, but Saburo kissed her again, eating her words.

"Let her go," Gum said. "Rape ain't nice no matter who the victim is."

Saburo sneered. Gum stared at him…Saburo…where had she heard that name before? Oh, well, didn't matter now.

"If you don't lay off her," she said, and took out a paint can, "I'm going to give you some colour in those black uniforms."

"Come on, Saburo," Jin said. "Get off her, okay? It's too late for a fight."

Chiyo slapped her. "This is one rudie. We'll be able to paint _her."_

"I'm giving you one more chance," Gum said. "You want to fuck up someone's life for something they can't help and get tagged in the process, let Saburo carry on. You want to stay rudies, let – her – go."

"Yeah," Kellaani said suddenly. "Get off her, Saburo."

Saburo looked up, face sulky. "Look, it's one rudie. Can't we –"

Kellaani thwacked him across the face with her paint can. Saburo stumbled back, clutching his bleeding nose, and swore.

Mimi, sobbing, began to scream, "Help! Help me, somebody!"

"Now you done it," Chiyo snapped, face contorted. She punched Mimi. "Will you keep your mouth shut!"

Gum heard sirens in the night, distorting the dark silence. A police car screeched to a halt next to them. The rudies scattered like black leaves – straight into the arms of the cops.

Kellaani looked back at Gum, and Gum felt an odd sense of – recognition – something – as their eyes met. 

"Thanks," she called.

Onishima rushed over to Mimi, who dropped into his arms and began crying loudly. "Dad, I'm sorry, I just…I…"

"It's okay." Onishima hugged her, rather nervously, then his face contorted into the familiar Onishima scowl as he stared at Saburo. "What did he do to you?"

"He…he was trying to…you know…but she saved me…" Mimi looked round, pointed at Kellaani, then at Gum, who shrank back into the shadows. 

She waited for Onishima to yell "Get her!" but he just stared at her a moment, from her helmet to her skates, then shrugged, and led Mimi towards one of the cars. 

Saburo stared out of the cop car window, eyes bulging with terror and fury, blood and tears covering his face.

And then the scene melted.

For a moment there was the crushing darkness – she couldn't see – she couldn't think – 

And there was sunlight. Cold, bright, winter sunlight. And a woman, sitting, talking on a phone on a balcony overlooking Shibuya.

Camilla Rokkaku.

Gum gulped and stepped back into the shadows. What was she supposed to do now? 

She didn't know what to do. And if she got this wrong…

_Falling, blood on the floor, I can see myself dying…_

"Yes…" Camilla said. "Yes, I see that. But come on. Time travel could be possible, right?" She laughed, flicked back her hair, which caught the light like a seal's back.

"Well, maybe I'll just –"

Gum stepped back a little further, and hit a small table with a delicate glass sculpture on. Which toppled, and hit the floor.

CRASH

"What the…look, I'll have to go," Camilla said. "See you around, all right?"

Shit, Gum thought. Well, that's blown it.

Camilla got up, and marched towards her.

Icy sweat prickled on the back of Gum's neck. I've failed, I've failed, and now I'm going to get caught again…

_Piranha screaming and…oh, lord, her kid…_

Suddenly she was whipped away, and the darkness struck again, crushing her, grinding her mind to pulp, I've failed, I've failed, and now I'll never get home –

And then a new view rushed up…and she saw herself, standing on a shadowy Shibuya street, approaching faster and faster and she rushed up through her own eyes into her brain, and spoke what she'd been about to say: 

***

"Beat?" she called. 

And this was home, this was the right place…the sense of familiarity was so strong it hurt her feet. The night air, lapping at her face. The tag blazing on the video rental shop some distance away. Jet Set Radio whispering in her ears at last.

"Beat, are you out here?"

Silence.

Fine. She should go…

***

Nuh-uh. Not now.

"Come on," she called. "Quit sulking, okay?"

Still nothing. Maybe he wasn't here. Well, then she'd search all of Tokyo-to till she found him. 

"Look. If you don't come home now, you'll be arrested tomorrow. You should have fixed that crack in your skate, shouldn't you?"

There was movement in the shadow of the nearby building, the sort of movement caused by somebody bending down to check that their skate didn't have a crack in it, and then recoiling as they realised it did.

"You'll be arrested," Gum said. "Cube and Garam will become hired killers. Combo will go back to Grind City. Tab will join the Noise Tanks. Mew and me'll be captured. And Piranha will get pregnant, and she'll quit with Slate. And we won't have any GGs any more." I haven't fixed Piranha, she thought. Oh, well, maybe Mari is meant to happen after all. The streets might be safer now if Onishima won't be so crazy.

There was still silence.

"Oh, and Beat…I know about you and Tab."

There was a crash as a can of spray paint hit the ground.

"How the hell did you –" Beat stopped. "I mean, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Hey, I don't mind."

"But –"

"Let's just say I can read body language. Now please come on, it's cold out here."

"They don't want me back there."

"They will." Gum remembered Cube slipping out of sanity, tears filling Mew's eyes, Tab's throat exploding with blood…

"Trust me, they will."

Beat skated out of the shadows. His goggles glinted in the dim light. He looked suspicious, and angry, and paint-covered, and strong.

Gum threw her arms around him and hugged him, tears spiking her eyes. 

"Hey, cool it, what's that for?"

"I – uh – I'm just really glad to see you. That's all."

"Gum, you saw me about an hour ago."

"No, I didn't, I…"

She stopped. She _had, _hadn't she? She'd come out to find him. 

"So come home, right?" she said at last.

Futures trembled as she waited. 

_Monster…killer…schoolgirl rudie…hi-tech Benten crazy…_

Crossroads.

"Okay. I guess so."

***

Gum followed Beat down the hill, back towards the garage. Man, it had been a pretty eventful night, and getting covered in paint was never cool. But at least she'd found him.

"What's with all that stuff you were spouting about people turning into hired killers?" Beat asked.

"Oh…I don't know." 

But she did. Well, sort of. It was like a dream that caught in the back of her mind.

Maybe Yo-Yo was worth a look some time.

And Mew and Isas?…the names were linked…

Maybe she'd tell Mew to check out the schoolboys in the bus terminal. Just maybe. She had a hunch…

But that was for tomorrow. She didn't need to stress out about it. After all, she reflected, glancing up at the huge blue sky surrounding them, she had all the time in the world.

THE END

(Wow…I finished! I didn't realise I was about to post the last chapter until I actually copied and pasted it! Anyway…thank you so much to everyone who reviewed and thanks for Nik and Tei/Disk for being their normal helpful selves. Merry Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Non-Denominational Holiday to all of you, and have a great new year!)


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